Jazz is freedom. You think about that.
Jazz demands that you bring to it things that are valuable to you, that are personal to you.
You don’t know what you like, you like what you know. In order to know what you like, you have to know everything.
When you hear somebody with balls, that’s me.
The majority of people mistakenly feel they don’t need a live musical experience.
What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
In order to complete your cycle, a musician needs to write; document what is going through your mind and where you are harmonically, theoretically, historically.
Change is always happening. That’s one of the wonderful things about Jazz music.
What kills me is that everybody thinks I like Jazz.
Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.
Once you have been bitten by the Jazz bug, it is not a choice anymore.
I was a nerd academically. But I was also an athlete and a musician. I never wanted to be shut out of any situation. I think it was that more than anything.
I’m no good with chords. I’m horrible with chords.
Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.
If the audience doesn’t hear what is going on, is it going on?
You’re just a little too hip for the room. It’s not good to be too hip because two hips make an ass.
I saw a vibraphone for the first time and knew immediately I had found my means of expression.
Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.
The louder they [the band] play the softer I sing.
Well if I could play like Wynton Marsalis, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.
I’ve said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.
