We’re here to have a ball.
Music washes away the dust of every day life.
If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet. If you feel like clapping your hands, clap your hands. And if you feel like taking off your shoes, take off your shoes. We are here to have a ball. So we want you to leave your worldly troubles outside and come in here and swing.
A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music.
It takes an intelligent ear to listen to Jazz.
[On the word Jazz] There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s only a word. What’s in a name? Nothing! Cats say, Call me Muhammed so-and-so. But what’s the difference? A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music. Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that’s it. No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa.
When it comes to music, don’t lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth.
To work is to feel alive.
[On urging Nyro to tell Barbara Streisand that ‘Wedding Bell Blues’ had been personally written for her] It’s not a big lie.
Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are.
Hot can be cool and cool can be hot and each can be both. But hot or cool man, Jazz is Jazz.
The violin, the saxophone, the trumpet: Each makes a very different sound but the very same notes. That’s pretty heavy, you know ? Imagine how many different races make up the human race. I’m called colored, you’re called white, he’s called something else. We still got an asshole and a mouth. Pardon me.
Why Jazz? This is just the way I see music.
It’s like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.
There’s a lot of recreational Jazz going on, where cats learn a particular style and become sharks on somebody else’s language.
You know the actor John Garfield? In one movie he walked up to this train station, the ticket booth, and the guy says, ‘Yes, where are you going?’ And he says, ‘I want a ticket to nowhere.’ I thought: that’s it. The freedom to do that. I want a ticket to nowhere.
First I was working on classical music that didn’t move me at all. I hated it. So I decided to discover the kinds of classical music that did move melike Chopin, Satie, Beethoven, and certain Mozart songs. Mozart would play a counterpart with his left hand while using his right to mock it. It was blue, dark, shadowy and it made me feel something. That’s when I realized music was inside me.
Music allows the great opportunity to play with people you love.
The louder they [the band] play the softer I sing.
I’m no good with chords. I’m horrible with chords.
Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.
So What or Kind of Blue were done in that era, the right hour, the right day. It’s over; it’s on the record.
