Steve Lacy

People don’t want to suffer. They want to sound good immediately and this is one of the biggest problems.

Jazz musician is a combination entertainer, poet, singer, educator, student, artist, seducer and all-round good fellow.

There’s a lot of recreational Jazz going on, where cats learn a particular style and become sharks on somebody else’s language.

In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds.

Jazz is like wine. When it is new it’s only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it.

In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds.

I don’t worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about Jazz.

You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

My music had roots which I’d dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

Nothing is out of the question for me. I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light…Then I’m grateful.

Living is easy with eyes closed.

[moving to Las Vegas] It was sort of like a man getting married – you don’t have to go out looking for girls, you’ve got your girl with you. I could go to casinos any time I had money and wanted to, so I actually went less.

I never heard of a Jazz musician who retired. You love what you do, so what are you going to do… play for the walls?

Get out there and improvise and take chances and don’t be a perfectionist.

However it goes, I’ll just keep playing. That’s where the basic satisfaction is at.

The expression of freedom that is Jazz improvisation mirrors the ethos of the best parts of society.

She’s Dynamite’ was a 100 years ago, and I recorded that song because the company thought that it was a great song and it was hot. That was the beginning of rock n’ roll, and I guess they thought it would be a BB King version of rock n’ roll.

The wonderful thing about Jazz is its willingness to take chances.

Jazz music is our original American culture.