Benny Goodman

Too many young musicians today want to win polls before they learn their instruments.

You have to look good.

If a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice.

One way or the other, if you want to find reasons why you shouldn’t keep on, you’ll find ’em. The obstacles are all there; there are a million of ’em.

Sometimes when you start losing detail, whether it’s in music or in life, something as small as failing to be polite, you start to lose substance.

As soon as it was understood that we could handle things in our own way, it was the thrill of my life to walk out on that stage with people just hemming the band in.

You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.

Silence is what makes music sexy. I just move blocks of silence around. The notes are an afterthought.

Never play anything the same way twice.

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

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.

You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.

To this day, no one has come up with a set of rules for originality. There aren’t any.

I felt like I was making a record under the radar, and that is my favorite way to do anything.

Jazz stands for freedom.

I compulsively reach for perfection in music, often at the expense of everything else in my life.

Players are coming from other backgrounds: rock, folk, ethnic music. It’s changing Jazz for the better.

How are you going to know what’s new to play if you haven’t listened to everything that’s old?

I heard someone say ‘What’s that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let’s get started.’

If you want to be a musician, study your craft. Study music.

I wanted to put jazz on the record, all the loves of music that I had on the record, so I could show people I was ahead of my 19 years. It may have been over the heads of some people.