Many people forget that Jazz, no matter what form it takes, must come from the heart as well as the mind.
Everything I’ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.
You want the listener to find the song on their own, give too much away and it takes away from the imagination.
How are you going to know what’s new to play if you haven’t listened to everything that’s old?
You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you’re really interested in it.
I’m trying to get people to see that we are our brother’s keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues.
I thank you in advance for the great round of applause I’m about to get.
A Jazz man should be saying what he feels: humor, sadness, joy… all the things that humans have.
I’m not much on gimmicks. I never have been because they don’t last.
I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.
The Blues? It’s the mother of American music. That’s what is is – the source.
Music is born out of the inner sounds within a soul.
Jazz is a complete lifestyle, something that you feel, something that you live.
If you want to be a good blues singer, people are going to be down on you, so dress like you’re going to the bank to borrow money.
If the bass plays the root, a pianist superimposes a Maj7 built on the 5th and the sax plays the 13th, will hot women notice?
Get out there and improvise and take chances and don’t be a perfectionist.
There’s a sadness to all kinds of music if you want to hear it. There’s also happiness to it if you want to hear it. Blues was started by the slaves and I think everybody thinks that it all should be sad… even some of the slaves had fun with it.
I always had a deep feeling to be one with the very minute I’m in.
Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.
I became a singer to sing my songs. They’re so hip who else is going to sing them?
Of the whole bunch of guys who play hollow body guitar, I think Herb Ellis has the most drive.
