Paul Kreibich

Jazz is not to be sliced into bites by mass marketing geniuses who assume we are mindless cattle.

There’s a spiritual satisfaction that one gets from listening and playing good Jazz.

Jazz music is our original American culture.

Jazz standards are our contribution to music history.

The expression of freedom that is Jazz improvisation mirrors the ethos of the best parts of society.

Apparently Jazz is now considered high art and the average person has trouble understanding it.

Improvisation is the most widespread of all musical activities. Why did so many people spend so long pretending it never happened?

Music and life are all about style.

I can’t sing it straight. I have no choice but to swing it.

Music is your experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

For me, there wasn’t a line between working and getting paid or simply playing for fun.

Silence is what makes music sexy. I just move blocks of silence around. The notes are an afterthought.

Jazz demands that you bring to it things that are valuable to you, that are personal to you.

I’ve had those people very interested in my writing. Since I think of myself as a composer, I feel really good. I’ve had lots of guys call me up. I’ve gotten two or three commissions to write things. I’ve written lots of movie scores.

There are no natural barriers. It’s all music.

If the audience doesn’t hear what is going on, is it going on?

The better it gets, the fewer of us know it.

Jazz musicians are the only workers who will put in a full shift for pay and then go somewhere else and continue to work for free.

I don’t care for the music when they’re talking bad about women because I think women are God’s greatest gift to the planet – I just like music.

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

We’re here to have a ball.