Don’t bullshit, just play.
A beat is a moment in the life a groove.
Nothing else will ever capture the democratic process in sound as perfectly as Jazz.
I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel.
In Jazz, improvisation isn’t a matter of just making any ol’ thing up. Jazz, like any language, has its own grammer and vocabulary. There’s no right or wrong, just some choices that are better than others.
Music does not come to you. You have to come to it and you’ll walk away with something you didn’t have before.
Find the best teachers, listen to the finest playing and try to emulate that. Be true to the music.
Music should never be harmless.
Keep on listening and tapping your feet.
All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.
Jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.
As soon as it was understood that we could handle things in our own way, it was the thrill of my life to walk out on that stage with people just hemming the band in.
One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music.
Anyone who doesn’t give [his debut album, The College Dropout] a perfect score is lowering the integrity of the magazine
He knows I rip him off every day. He’s the godfather for me. Nobody can say they aren’t influenced by what Stevie Wonder has done.
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
A drummer has to be kind-hearted.
I don’t like recording studios – except my own, which is just a little room above the garage.
Music is what I hear and something that I live by.
Damn it, when I’m bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic: take it or leave it.
I don’t dig staying in one groove.
You can’t go to the store and buy a good ear and rhythm.
