Just allow your feelings to go with the music and you’ll find yourself carried along by it fairly quickly.
I have younger friends who don’t work and they aren’t doing so well. My secret is to keep going, keep working.
Jazz speaks for life. This is triumphant music.
Players are coming from other backgrounds: rock, folk, ethnic music. It’s changing Jazz for the better.
I can play all I know in eight bars.
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.
I first fell in love with the piano, I knew it was me. I was dying to play.
If you’ve only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble.
It’s not technique — it’s what you have to say.
If you have something in your life worth celebrating, you can put it in a blues song.
I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.
I guess you can look at me, and tell I’m the old man. My name is BB King.
As long as you’ve got your horn in your mouth, you’re developing.
The greatest moments of the human spirit may be deduced from the greatest moments in music.
Start well and end well. The middle will look after itself.
The truth is I never gave it much thought. I just played what I had to play.
The idea is more important than the style you’re playing in.
In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.
I worked until I could play and do changes at any tempo in any key and said ‘What else is there?’ Now I’m finding out.
You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.
I never really thought about becoming a professional musician.
