Tony Williams

I’ve studied all my musical life, but learning is only good if you do something constructive with it.

There’s nobody plays like me and I don’t play like anybody else.

I’ve always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting.

I’ve always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn’t have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did.

I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.

Jazz music will continue to thrive, possibly in unexpected ways.

There’s a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste.

I don’t compose. I assemble materials.

I expect the audience to come up to my level.

I’m a big fan of music, a student. I just wanna learn and keep enhancing my education about Jazz.

The way I look at it, they’re all part of my musical diary, and I can listen to any one of them and it will bring up memories of what was going on at that time.

To this day, I don’t like people walking on stage not looking good. You have to look good. If you feel special about yourself then you’re going to play special.

I get interested in the various ways that music is being done in the culture, and some of it I like thoroughly enough to want to learn about it. The way I have been successful at doing that is to become part of it.

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

Music should not have any mandates. Jazz is not supposed to be something that is required to sound like jazz.

Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.