Woody Herman

We might as well swing boys, because Stravinsky cuts us all.

An artist should write for himself and not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.

We made records to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records. I still feel that way. I put out a record because I think it’s beautiful, not necessarily commercial.

You compose because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set down some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.

I think the one thing that I’ve learned is that you cannot predict what’s going to happen. You can’t sit back and try to figure out what people want or leave it up to them to decide. When we all started in this business we would dictate to the audience what was great and they picked up on that based on the fact that we believed that it was great. But that’s all changed. What’s happened in the last ten years or so because is that the technology now means that everyone with a computer can make music and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

I heard someone say ‘What’s that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let’s get started.’

Music doesn’t have to hop to be hip, as long as it swings it sings.

I just fell in love with the integrity of the music and that was it.

If a guy is gonna to play good bop, he has to have a sort of a bop soul.

I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s.

If it ain’t fun, I want no part of it man. That’s the reason I play.

Music opens up minds to dream great dreams about where you can go and what you can do.

Lionel Richie told me forget about the critics. But if you come back with hit after hit, you don’t have to worry about anything.

A musician starting out today should get a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument.

Composing makes me feel like I’ve finally gotten all the way up the ladder as a musician.

I get interested in the various ways that music is being done in the culture, and some of it I like thoroughly enough to want to learn about it. The way I have been successful at doing that is to become part of it.