Benny Carter

I play whatever the hell comes out… that’s it.

I regard singing pretty much like acting. Each song is like playing a different role. I get very involved with my material. I feel a responsibility for the emotion it brings out in the listener.

It’s difficult for me to dislike an artist, no matter what he’s creating.

Technique is the ability to translate your ideas into sound through your instrument. This is a comprehensive technique . . . a feeling for the keyboard that will allow you to transfer any emotional utterance into it. What has to happen is that you develop a comprehensive technique and then say, forget that. I’m just going to be expressive through the piano.

It bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s feeling.

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

We all played bad before we played good.

I thank you in advance for the great round of applause I’m about to get.

The true musician is to bring light into people’s hearts.

The only award I’ve ever worked for or wanted really were the ones that were given to me by the fans. So, whether it’s a platinum record or hit songs, those are the ones that last the most.

You explore beautiful songs and create your own interpretation of them.

Jazz improvisation is an elusive genius.

I don’t compose. I assemble materials.

I became a singer to sing my songs. They’re so hip who else is going to sing them?

Jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.

I was never interested in singing in the church or school. I was more interested in becoming a musician.