Music is an addiction.
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.
You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.
Bebop was about change, about evolution. It wasn’t about standing still and being safe.
[On Louis Armstrong] You cant play nothing on modern trumpet that doesnt come from him, not even modern shit. I cant even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang.
I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He’s still a nice young man, only confused.
Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.
Listening is the key to everything good in music.
There’s always this sound out there that’s just a little beyond my reach and that just sort of keeps me going.
It’s easier to copy someone else than to find out how to avoid sounding like someone else.
I’m going to make music out of whatever style it is, being true to the artform itself.
As a little kid, blues meant hope, excitement, pure emotion. Blues were about feelings. They seem to bring out the feelings of the artist and they brought out my feelings as a kid. They made me wanna move, or sing, or pick up Reverend’s guitar and figure out how to make those wonderful sounds.
I heard someone say ‘What’s that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let’s get started.’
Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression.
Music should always be an adventure.
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.
Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.
Why Jazz? This is just the way I see music.
The boppers flat their fifths. We consume ours.
Jazzmen are our surrogates for the unpredictable, our paladins of constant change.
One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them.
The only thing better than singing is more singing.
