We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
The trio is the biggest sound you can have with the smallest unit.
Jazz stands for freedom.
Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.
I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world.
Jazz music is a style, not compositions; any kind of music may be played in Jazz if one has the knowledge.
I never thought about being famous or rich. I just thought, Oh, I’ll get a nice little girl and go and play every night, and I’d be happy. And that worked for a while. But the little girl’s mother didn’t trust a guy with a horn.
You have to sound sad first, then maybe later you can sound good.
And then when I found my sound, it took me two and a half weeks to find my sound and when I did I pulled out all the stops, all the stops I could find.
The Jazz Age became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children’s party taken over by the elders.
Jazz is an art that makes a person completely naked.
We usually never got out of there before four or five o’clock in the morning. Every morning. So it was rough.
I think we musicians are emissaries. Every time we go before the public, we’re there to make converts.
There’s nobody plays like me and I don’t play like anybody else.
I always wanted to play the piano, and jazz appealed to me.
The more you listen, the more your hear.
You don’t know what love is, until you’ve learned the meaning of the blues, until you’ve loved a love you’ve had to lose.
You can practice to learn technique, but I’m more interested in conceiving something in the moment.
He almost adds a Chet-like sound to it.
I never really thought about becoming a professional musician.
