Jazz is rhythm and meaning.
There are wonderful things in Jazz, the improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.
Man, if you gotta ask you’ll never know.
The word “jazz” means to me no category, but when you get stuck into wanting to do something the way it was with the “jazz emblem” or logo chained around your neck, you play in a frozen moment in time and you keep fermenting the ‘fifties saying jazz should be this way or that. Well, if jazz to me means no category, then I’ve got the green light And if it sounds like.. sounds like.. sounds like, and keeps crossing over, it’s what I wanted to do in the first place. I like the way Stravinsky and those guys did things. They expressed something, if not themselves. In fact, some people talk about expression, but expression really doesn’t mean anything to me because there’s a lot of work which goes into building a drama and then it’s up to other people to offer “expression.” Expression is such a nebulous thing.
You will never know what the meaning of Jazz is if ask what it means.
Trios offer simple instrumentation, but the orchestral possibilities are so profound.
Players are coming from other backgrounds: rock, folk, ethnic music. It’s changing Jazz for the better.
And then when I found my sound, it took me two and a half weeks to find my sound and when I did I pulled out all the stops, all the stops I could find.
If you can’t play the blues, you might as well hang it up.
Your accompanist has a lot to do with how you sing, so experiment and choose your partner wisely.
Hot can be cool and cool can be hot and each can be both. But hot or cool man, Jazz is Jazz.
Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking.
Music and life are all about style.
When you hear my lyrics, you hear the shots that I throw at people. I throw shots because I always been the underdog. I got rejected so many times, and I say it in my lyrics constantly.
Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about Jazz and Blues.
Most jazz players work out their solos, at least to the extent that they have a very specific vocabulary.
It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.
