Herbie Hancock

Jazz? has no boundaries.

The spirit of Jazz is the spirit of openness.

I try to practice with my life.

Music is the tool to express life – and all that makes a difference.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.

Jazz music has become academic. Sometimes that doesn’t feel right to me.

I met up with George Shearing about a year before my mother passed away. When I was 11 years old, Mama took me to the Edgewater Inn in Seattle and I was able to sit down and play piano for George and a lot of (the set list) was songs I had heard from the album, ‘Concerto For My Love.’ Then, after Mama died, my dad and I went to actually hear him perform at the Edgewater Inn when I was 12. Oh my gosh! It just really got me into playing piano.

Keep on listening and tapping your feet.

I don’t worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about Jazz.

I’m no good with chords. I’m horrible with chords.

I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.

When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy and Bird.

Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking… The new inventive phrases we make up to describe things – all that to me is jazz just as much as the music we play.

Jazz has the ability to absorb and transform influences from diverse musical styles.

I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn’t only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around.

If you dig it, do it. If you dig it a lot, do it again.

I’m fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with.

If you’re going to make a mistake, make it loud so everybody else sounds wrong.