Herbie Hancock

Jazz? has no boundaries.

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

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

Being a musician is what I do, but it’s not what I am.

I try to practice with my life.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

Writing is allowing the musical idea to speak for itself.

The true musician is to bring light into people’s hearts.

To this day, no one has come up with a set of rules for originality. There aren’t any.

Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.

Creativity shouldn’t be following radio; it should be the other way around.

You know at an early age if you have a talent for music.

The truth is I never gave it much thought. I just played what I had to play.

During these years I began to feel an increasing dissatisfaction with the relations of the music-loving public and the living composer. It seemed to me that we composers were in danger of working in a vacuum.

What I look for in concert is a connection with the audience.

I started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression, whether it was through music, or acting, or dancing, or painting, or writing.

Bebop was about change, about evolution. It wasn’t about standing still and being safe.

Jazz is very much alive. Everywhere I go there’s a new generation of musicians playing Jazz music.

Jazz is the assassination, the murdering, the slaying of syncopation. I would even go so far as to confess that we are musical anarchists.

If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.

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.