Chet Baker

Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it’s a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don’t listen.

Well if I could play like Wynton Marsalis, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

What a guy, what a fool am I, to think my breaking heart could kid the moon.

He almost adds a Chet-like sound to it.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

Well, for me it’s – music is the instrument of life.

I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player and a special award in 1961 for quietness.

I have a lot of albums yet to do.

You usually can’t tell what’s inspiring until you look back on it.

I prefer no one to teach me. I prefer to swing on my own.

Actually, I think the more Ben [Taylor] sings, the less like James he sounds.

Women bring something different to an instrument if they are respectful of their feminine aesthetic.

You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it.

I just remember always trying to emulate Dinah Washington, hanging out in my bedroom closet.

Something just grabs you about a song.

I started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression, whether it was through music, or acting, or dancing, or painting, or writing.

While many forms of music may use the dynamic of improvisation, Jazz exemplifies the unique characteristic of collective improvisation.

I went through a struggle, and I really needed to get myself together and connect with my purpose, which is music.

I could see the blues was about survival.