Tierney Sutton

Look at the tune and not make the same statement that has been made a million times.

The way a band works is a metaphor for all sorts of collaborative and larger enterprises that people do.

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

If you think it, want it, dream it… then it’s real. You are what you feel.

Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra.

Excessive reverence for the romantic illusion of original thought is the most fraudulent and destructive element in Jazz education.

The secret is keeping busy, and loving what you do.

By giving the public a rich and full melody, distinctly arranged and well played, all the time creating new tone colors and patterns, I feel we have a better chance of being successful. I want a kick to my band, but I don’t want the rhythm to hog the spotlight.

Jazz improvisation is the art of drawing without an eraser.

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night, but differently each time.

Music is interior decoration.

I never thought about being famous or rich. I just thought, Oh, I’ll get a nice little girl and go and play every night, and I’d be happy. And that worked for a while. But the little girl’s mother didn’t trust a guy with a horn.

The trio is the biggest sound you can have with the smallest unit.

Most of the stuff I learned to play, I learned in high school. I had a band in high school, a jazz-fusion thing, and I was the keyboard player. I was interested in how the instruments worked and the theory behind playing with them.

When you just get mixed up and there’s too much going on, then it’s time to pick up your guitar.

I became a singer to sing my songs. They’re so hip who else is going to sing them?

You can’t copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, you’re working without any real feeling.