Shirley Horn

Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience.

Les is an old friend of mine. He gave me this special white Les Paul – he wound the pickups himself – for my birthday, first time I met him. I play everything from heavy metal to blues to jazz on it. He just hit it right on the head when he designed the Les Paul. I like it better than most girlfriends I’ve had. The godfather of rock ‘n’ roll, I call him. Without him, none of us would have a job.

Jazz is a work in progress. We’ll be defining traditions in Jazz for 200-300 years.

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.

There’s only one bass player in a band. I’m the best bass player of any band I’m in.

My improvisations are a beguiling mixture of the vertical and the horizontal.

[In 1969] I think lyrics have always been important to any serious writer of music.

And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into.

If you follow your passions, you’ll never work a day in your life.

I’ve worked with jazz artists, country artists, classical artists, pop artists. I never wanted there to be categories, because when I was a kid there weren’t.

I don’t care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing.

Applause felt like approval and it became a drug that soothed the pain, but only temporarily.

One of the things I like about Jazz, kid, is I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Do you?

It’s always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don’t know where it comes from, it’s just there and I don’t question it.

Notes are expensive… spend them wisely!