Aaron Copland

If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness.

Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music. Surprisingly enough, everyone doesn’t.

So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.

I like the interplay in the music.

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.

A Jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

You compose because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set down some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.

I had a really good time in New Orleans, although I had some very tragic times in Baton Rouge. Some guys beat me up and threw my horn away. ‘Cause I had a beard, then, and long hair like the Beatles.

I just remember always trying to emulate Dinah Washington, hanging out in my bedroom closet.

Jazz is the assassination, the murdering, the slaying of syncopation. I would even go so far as to confess that we are musical anarchists.

Live music is best! Make plans to get out and support your local Jazz scene.

Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.

There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music.

The way I feel today, as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, still buy my CDs, I’ll keep playing until I feel like I can’t.

I don’t dig staying in one groove.

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?

Just allow your feelings to go with the music and you’ll find yourself carried along by it fairly quickly.

An orchestra can become as familiar and reliable an instrument as a well-known, well-worn piano.