Steve Lacy

I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of Jazz.

Risk is at the heart of Jazz. Every note we play is a risk.

In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds.

You have to sound sad first, then maybe later you can sound good.

There’s a lot of recreational Jazz going on, where cats learn a particular style and become sharks on somebody else’s language.

Jazz is like wine. When it is new it’s only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it.

A movie and a stage show are two entirely different things. A picture, you can do anything you want. Change it, cut out a scene, put in a scene, take a scene out. They don’t do that on stage.

There’s so much music out there and so many possibilities. I like anyone who plays any instrument.

We all played bad before we played good.

When it comes to music, don’t lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth.

Being a Jazz musician is not a rose garden!

Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens.

Instrumental music can spread the international language.

A Jazz Diet will make you hipper, thinner, taller, smarter, richer, happier and more attractive to members of both sexes.

For me, the Les Paul is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll guitar of all time. If you’re not playing a Gibson guitar and you’re playing this kind of music, whether it’s punk, metal or anything grounded in rock ‘n’ roll, you’re not really doing it right. I don’t think professionally I’d every play anything else. Gibson, thank you for making greatest guitars ever.

Jazz speaks for life. This is triumphant music.

I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.

Bebop was about change, about evolution. It wasn’t about standing still and being safe.

Every day when I sit down to play, I learn something new.

I say this because it’s a good message to give to young talents who feel as I used to. You hear musicians playing with great fluidity and complete conception early on, and you don’t have that ability. I didn’t. I had to know what I was doing. And ultimately it turned out that these people weren’t able to carry their thing very far. I found myself being more attracted to artists who have developed through the years and become better and deeper musicians.I believe in things that are developed through hard work.

Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.