B. B. King

We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.

If I don’t learn something new every day, it’s a day lost

I’m trying to get people to see that we are our brother’s keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues.

There’s a sadness to all kinds of music if you want to hear it. There’s also happiness to it if you want to hear it.

Cotton was a force of nature. There’s a poetry to it, hoeing and growing cotton.

I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I’ve never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I’ve wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn’t work.

I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel.

All this is saying is, OK I see now, the ‘hood does not quite want Shirley Bassey yet, so let me still give them this. Crack Music was made after Diamonds. After black people were like, ‘I don’t know about this one.’ It was like me reaching too high for the cookie jar.

Play for the spiritual aspect, the emotion.

I never stop being amazed by all the different ways of playing the guitar and making it deliver a message.

Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn’t have a choice.

I wanna hear myself everywhere

I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I’ve never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I’ve wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn’t work.

Jazz music is the real deal.

Surrender your whole being to a note and gravity disappears.

Through Dizzy and Bird I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

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

I don’t care for the music when they’re talking bad about women because I think women are God’s greatest gift to the planet – I just like music.

As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction.

When you know the lyrics to a tune, you have some kind of insight as to it’s composition. If you don’t understand what it’s about, you’re depriving yourself of being really able to communicate this poem.

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history.