Artie Shaw

I can’t understand these guys who just have to have your autograph. I asked one of them ‘What do you do when you get home, take it out and look at it?’

I was really running a music school back then, because my band wasn’t making any money. I keep talking about money, because most people don’t understand the part of money in running a band.

An artist should write for himself and not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.

There’s such a cynicism about the phrase ‘I laughed all the way to the bank.’ It’s as though money is what you’re doing, rather than playing music. If you’re playing a money game, why not get into banking?

Shoot for the moon. If you miss you’ll still end up in the stars.

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.

What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?

Using drugs didn’t help me play, all it did was hang me up for 15 years.

The blues tells a story in itself. It can make you happy or give you a feeling to swing.

A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other’s ideas.

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.

People like the idea of the trio and so I did mostly trio.

Only play what you hear. If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.

For me, there wasn’t a line between working and getting paid or simply playing for fun.

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijuana, and will expire on cocaine.

Vocalists must study music and know everything an instrumentalist needs to know.

[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.

I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.

Les is an old friend of mine. He gave me this special white Les Paul – he wound the pickups himself – for my birthday, first time I met him. I play everything from heavy metal to blues to jazz on it. He just hit it right on the head when he designed the Les Paul. I like it better than most girlfriends I’ve had. The godfather of rock ‘n’ roll, I call him. Without him, none of us would have a job.

You just sort of have to play the way you are.

When you want ’em you can’t get ’em, when you’ve got ’em, you don’t want ’em.