Tom Moulton

I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces, as opposed to what I see it being now, which is a way for me to actually communicate, and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.

If you can’t play the Blues you might as well hang it up.

A Les Paul feels like a guitar and I play differently on that and I sound too much like someone else.

If my own work had more importance than any others, it’s because the piano is the key instrument in music.

Composing is a mindset, a part of who I am.

Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

Music’s a good thing, it calm the beast in the man.

Jazz demands that you bring to it things that are valuable to you, that are personal to you.

You want the listener to find the song on their own, give too much away and it takes away from the imagination.

The main thing is you want to emote.

Jazz music can relax, soothe and uplift the mind when you absorb it.

The fact that an artist is experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in it together.

Jazz has such great feeling and emotional content it really doesn’t require technical understanding.

All this is saying is, OK I see now, the ‘hood does not quite want Shirley Bassey yet, so let me still give them this. Crack Music was made after Diamonds. After black people were like, ‘I don’t know about this one.’ It was like me reaching too high for the cookie jar.

I was a nerd academically. But I was also an athlete and a musician. I never wanted to be shut out of any situation. I think it was that more than anything.