Your accompanist has a lot to do with how you sing, so experiment and choose your partner wisely.
You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you’re really interested in it.
It’s true I’ve always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.
Beiderbecke took out a silver cornet, put it to his lips and blew a phrase. The sound came out like a girl saying ‘yes.’
If you want to play somebody’s music, you’d better go into his house.
If you already have a piece of music ingrained in your body, why would you not play it?
I would’ve loved to have been in a band, but sadly I just wasn’t good enough.
You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.
Musicians need to continue higher learning try to expand the pallet.
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.
When you listen to someone improvise, the notes that are played are only half the story.
Hipness is not a state of mind, it’s a fact of life.
I’ve had the pleasure of playing with the baddest Jazz cats on the planet.
A great symphony is a man-made Mississippi down which we irresistibly flow from the instant of our leave-taking to a long forseen destination.
The fans dictate to you when you’re done!
In my family on my mother’s side we’re all church musicians first so I don’t remember a time when we weren’t doing something musical. My brothers and I sang in a little quartet, my aunts and uncles sang and my grandfather was a minister of music in our church, so walking and talking was like doing music for us.
Albert King wasn’t my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues!
I just wonder where I was when the talent was being given out, like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Eric Clapton… oh, there’s many more! I wouldn’t want to be like them, you understand, but I’d like to be equal, if you will.
It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.
Dog spelled backward is God. That’s pretty heavy.
I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.
