Lee Morgan

There are no natural barriers. It’s all music.

Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers.

T-Bone was, to me, that sound of being in heaven.

Jazz is one of the few things you can do in society to express yourself freely and creatively.

It’s not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

You can be beyond yourself, better than your technique, better than most of your usual ideas.

In fact, I heard Bird first, and had got well into listening to him. You know, it’s the kind of accidental thing that awareness of a player is: what’s available, what somebody happens to play for you.

I gave it my absolute everything I had in that howl at the start of the song. And then B. B. King opened up his mouth and I felt like a girl. We had learned and absorbed, but the more we tried to be like B.B., the less convincing we were.

I’ve never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.

Jazz never ends… it just continues.

Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens.

No one remembers who wrote the tune, putting pen to paper in some lonely place. They remember who had the hit.

Jazz is music made by and for people who have chosen to feel good in spite of conditions.

Dog spelled backward is God. That’s pretty heavy.

I love Jazz because it has the perfect balance of discipline and freedom.

I had a really good time in New Orleans, although I had some very tragic times in Baton Rouge. Some guys beat me up and threw my horn away. ‘Cause I had a beard, then, and long hair like the Beatles.