I’ll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I’d never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I’d never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn’t much like it at first.
Keep on listening and tapping your feet.
I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, ‘Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.
Count don’t do nothin’. But it sure sounds good.
Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.
I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can’t define it beyond that.
I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch.
If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!
Well, if you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!
The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.
If a guy is gonna to play good bop, he has to have a sort of a bop soul.
Of course there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.
All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel… and that’s what I’ve been doing all my life.
If you play a tune and a person don’t tap their feet, don’t play the tune.
