Lionel Hampton

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

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

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

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

I think I love it more as I get older because I keep getting better on drums, vibes and piano.

Playing is my way of thinking, talking, communicating.

I’m fortunate that I’m making a living at it now because I’m not equipped to do anything else.

I don’t consider myself a musician who has achieved perfection and can’t develop any further.

I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.

The whole concept for the Yeezus album is that we’re not going to be using CDs in the future and since this is the last time we’re going to see it, this is an open casket for the CD.

Man, you tell a story.

A guitar is something you can hold and love and it’s never going to bug you. But here’s the secret about the guitar – it’s defiant. It will never let you conquer it. The more you get involved with it, the more you realize how little you know.

I look for a deep, gutty feelin’ in a guitar tone. I don’t use picks. People ask, “How you get that?” It’s just there. There’s a lot of people try to play real fast chords-da da da da da-that ain’t the hard, solid blues. It’s synthetic. It has not feeling to it. You sit down and play some funky, funky guitar. Take your time! Don’t rush it. Just let it come flowing through you. I can play guitar so funky, it’ll bring teardrops to your eyes.

Now I need to take a piece of wood and make it sound like the railroad track, but I also had to make it beautiful and lovable so that a person playing it would think of it in terms of his mistress, a bartender, his wife, a good psychiatrist – whatever.

People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.

If a player is pushing their ability, a certain amount of failure is inevitable. Maybe even desirable.

The English pianist Alan Clare was once intrigued with a workman who was carrying out some remodeling inside his house. Clare was playing some recordings, and he began to notice that the workman was whistling along with whatever music he put on – Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, it didn’t seem to matter. Even if he hadn’t heard it before, he had the natural musical ability to follow a melody closely and almost automatically. Clare decided to give him a real test and dug up his recording of Art Tatum doing Tea For Two, with the ground-breaking chord changes Tatum introduced into the tune. The workman never lost a beat nor did he lay out for a bar or two to figure out what was going on. He tracked Tatum flawlessly through all his changes, and when the record ended, he spoke for the first time. He glanced at Clare and with classic English understatement said, ‘Tricky f**ker, ain’t he?’

I never stop being amazed by all the different ways of playing the guitar and making it deliver a message.

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.

Some players get very philosophical and cerebral about Jazz. You don’t need any prologues, you just play.

I always make it a point to pick songs on which players really shine.