External instruments are only extensions of the biological instrument.
I am very aware that so little has happened to the electric guitar from the time that it was conceived to now; where there are so little changes made where there should be drastic changes made. If we were to put our heads together and start thinking about modern technology we would be much more advantaged with the electric guitar than we are. I think that we’ve been stagnant for many years.
All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.
Jazz is not to be sliced into bites by mass marketing geniuses who assume we are mindless cattle.
Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
Do it again on the next verse and people think you meant it.
It’s not what they think, it’s about what’s best for the music.
Music to me is like breathing. I don’t get tired of breathing, I don’t get tired of music.
Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.
And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into.
I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.
I think when my brother (Claude who founded vocal sextet Take Six) got his deal and I saw him on the Grammys that was when I said, ‘oh, you know what? If he can do it then maybe I can do too’ and that’s when I really focused on trying to make it in this business.
I write about moments, and I don’t make blanket statements about anything because no one has all the answers; nobody’s come up with a foolproof way to do anything when it comes to emotions.
How are you going to know what’s new to play if you haven’t listened to everything that’s old?
The expression of freedom that is Jazz improvisation mirrors the ethos of the best parts of society.
I don’t dig staying in one groove.
Music is the greatest communication in the world.
Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.
The greatest thing about music is putting it out there for people to figure out.
By and large Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.
I always play what I feel. I always feel like me, but I’m a different me every day. I get ideas from everything. A big color, the sound of water and wind, or a flash of something cool. Playing is like life. Either you feel it or you don’t.
