Music is a verb.
I wasn’t so interested in being paid. I wanted to be heard. That’s why I’m broke.
Difference between sex and love? Well, you’re not always sure you’re in love. But when you’re having sex, there’s really no mistaking it.
It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.
Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.
Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night, but differently each time.
I don’t really live like a musician myself. I think music is just something that I do, but I’d like to be doing lots of other things. I like to cure all kinds of illness.
It’s easy to play any musical instrument, just touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.
Darlin… be-bop is the music of the future.
It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.
Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijuana, and will expire on cocaine.
You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you’re really interested in it.
But I have always suspected that one could substitute the Minuet of Haydn’s 98th symphony for the Minuet in Haydn’s 99th symphony without sensing a serious lack of coherence in either work.
I think that those elements – light and sound – are beyond democratic. They’re into the creative part of life.
If the audience doesn’t hear what is going on, is it going on?
A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside… I’m going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do.
I say, ‘Play your own way. Don’t play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you’re doing – even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years’.
Music used to be essential and meaningful, but now it’s disposable.
All music is beautiful.
What don’t I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain’t nobody here saying, ‘You’d better learn this.’ But I still think I’ve got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me.
If you take the time and your talent is real, it will last.
When I was in the country and I was trying to play, nobody seemed to pay too much attention to me. People used to say, ‘That’s just that ole blues singer.’
