Lionel Hampton

Working with Benny was important for me and for black musicians in general.

Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.

Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.

It’s always Jazz. You can put a new dress on her, a new hat, but no matter what kind of clothes she’s the same old broad.

Black and white players hadn’t appeared together in public before Teddy Wilson and I began working with B.G.

Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I’ll give it to them.

Once you become predictable, no one’s interested anymore.

I started as a writer and when I sent my demos out everyone wanted to know who was singing and if that person wanted a record deal.

Play the music not the instrument.

Indian music is very soulful and the only other school that develops improv to the high degree you find in Jazz.

The true musician plays what he/she hears. That cannot be a mistake.

The way I think about the practicing, it is my undercover work.

Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

The violin, the saxophone, the trumpet: Each makes a very different sound but the very same notes. That’s pretty heavy, you know ? Imagine how many different races make up the human race. I’m called colored, you’re called white, he’s called something else. We still got an asshole and a mouth. Pardon me.

Sometimes I sound like gravel and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.

If I could sell 500 million records every time, it would be great. But I’ve also had the luxury experience of having it when I was a teenager, in a very kind of model version of it.

Jazz? has no boundaries.

Never play anything the same way twice.

I am a writer – that is what I am before being a performer or musician. I love waking up in the morning and then going to sleep that night with something that did not exist.

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