Terri Lyne Carrington

Our music artistry should not be disconnected from our lives or ourselves.

Women bring something different to an instrument if they are respectful of their feminine aesthetic.

Once you have been bitten by the Jazz bug, it is not a choice anymore.

Women have not been socialized to play drums. It’s not natural for us to hit thing.

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

The audience, they’re not professionals. They just love music. It isn’t necessary to play over their heads to be admired.

Don’t give up trying to do what you really want. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

A Jazz man should be saying what he feels: humor, sadness, joy… all the things that humans have.

Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn’t have.

People always ask, “Why jazz?” and I’m like “Why not?” It’s kind of like asking Seurat, “Why so many dots?” I imagine if you asked Bjork, “Why the Tibetan bells?” She’d probably be like “That’s just what I heard.” It’s the same thing. This is just the way I see music.

Of the whole bunch of guys who play hollow body guitar, I think Herb Ellis has the most drive.

You can cage the singer but not the song.

I can count on one hand the number of instrumental hits there have been over the last 10 years.

Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.

Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about Jazz and Blues.

‘Swing’ is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a ‘swing band’ in music.

I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good – he’s rock’s #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us.

I haven’t got a great jazz band and I don’t want one. Some of the critics, Down Beat’s among them, point their fingers at us and charge us with forsaking real jazz . . . It’s all in what you define as ‘real jazz.’ It happens that to our ears harmony comes first. A dozen colored bands have a better beat than mine. Our band stresses harmony.

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.