Artie Shaw

No matter how carefully and assiduously and how deeply you bury shit, the American public will find it and buy it in large quantity, It’s true, absolutely true.

‘Swing’ is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a ‘swing band’ in music.

Dance music-as I keep saying, you can dance to a windshield wiper… a windshield wiper that’s fairly steady gives you a beat and all you need is an out-of-tune playing ‘Melancholy Baby’ and you’ve got dance music.

Somebody asked me once, ‘Do you think that swing will ever come back?’ And I said, ‘Do you think the 1938 Form will ever come back?’

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

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

I feel I have only scratched the surface of what I know I am capable of doing.

If I’m not a jazz player all the time, I’ve at least been cued in to what I do by jazz.

When I heard T-Bone, I flat out lost my mind.

To keep creating you have to be about change.

Jazz is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Ideologies separate us. Art brings us together.

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

I hear beauty and elegance combined with passion and fire.

Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.

Music should always be an adventure.

I’ve studied all my musical life, but learning is only good if you do something constructive with it.

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you’ve got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.

Mary Lou Williams used to tell me: If you’re not feeling right, play a minor tune and it falls into place.

I don’t do something because I think it will sell 30 million albums. I couldn’t care less. If it sells one, it sells one.