Benny Green

Art [Blakey] would take young people with a potential and help them develop a voice as a player and as a writer.

Jazz music is a special skill that has brought pleasure to millions throughout the world.

I have a deep respect for harmony, melodic patterns and form.

I have no elitist concepts about Jazz. I would not be the musician I am today without experiencing invaluable music styles that are at the roots of African American black life and culture.

I developed in my head that I’m never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it’s like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it’s more like concern. You’re concerned about the people – like meeting your in-laws for the first time.

It’s very difficult for me to dislike an artist. No matter what he’s creating, the fact that he’s experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in a brotherhood of some kind… we’re in it together.

[on Ornette Coleman] Man, that cat is nuts!

I worked until I could play and do changes at any tempo in any key and said ‘What else is there?’ Now I’m finding out.

The inspired moment may sometimes be described as a kind of hallucinatory state of mind: one half of the personality emotes and dictates while the other half listens and notates. The half that listens has better look the other way, had better simulate a half attention only, for the half that dictates is easily disgruntled and avenges itself for too close inspection by fading entirely away.

I find my inspiration in myself.

I always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons we’re here is to be a part of this process of exchange.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

Jazz is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

I don’t think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life.

I still do what I love, and I don’t really think about it. I try to make a beautiful show, so people go home happy. That’s my biggest aspiration: to make people happy.

Jazz improvisation is an elusive genius.

Spontaneously composed music is a counterpoint that has its own rules based on a natural order and intuitive logic.