Arturo Sandoval

To rise above the crowd, discipline yourself unceasingly to the strict demand and realities of your ambition.

Blow your life through your horn.

I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.

I only knew classical music, which to me was the only true music. The only way I could survive at the bar was to mix the classical music with popular songs, and that meant I had to sing. What happened was that I discovered I had a voice plus the talent to mix classical music together with more popular songs, which at the time I detested.

Listening is more important than anything because that’s what music is. Somebody is playing something and you’re receiving it.

Music has to be accessible.

Apparently Jazz is now considered high art and the average person has trouble understanding it.

Jazz is a mental attitude rather than a style. It uses a certain process of the mind expressed spontaneously through some musical instrument. I’m concerned with retaining that process.

Count don’t do nothin’. But it sure sounds good.

You can cage the singer but not the song.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

I’m more careful about my hands than about what I eat and most anything else, because my hands have been my living. My hands have been able to help me learn. My hands have taken me around the world. So I’m very proud of my hands.

Jazz has the ability to absorb and transform influences from diverse musical styles.

Early on, I figured out that when the top of a guitar is vibrating and a string is vibrating, you’ve got a conflict. One of them has got to stop, and it can’t be the string, because that’s making the sound. So in 1934, I asked the Larson Brothers—Chicago instrument makers—to build me a guitar with a half-inch-thick maple top and no f-holes. They thought I was crazy.

Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

A musician starting out today should get a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument.

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