Benny Green

A Jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

Jazz music is a special skill that has brought pleasure to millions throughout the world.

If you follow your passions, you’ll never work a day in your life.

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about… Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.

I wanted to sustain a note like a singer. I wanted to phrase a note like a saxist. By bending the strings, by trilling my hand – and I have big fat hands – I could achieve something that approximated a vocal vibrato. I could sustain a note. I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions. By fooling with the feedback between my amplifier and instrument, I started experimenting with sounds that expressed my feelings, whether happy or sad, bouncy or bluesy. I was looking for ways to let my guitar sing.

All we are saying is give peace a chance.

I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy and Bird.

If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it’s like the human voice

One of the reasons we’re here is to be a part of this process of exchange.

Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

To play without passion is inexcusable.

Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

I am not interested in compromising my music to make it palatable to an assumed sub-standard mass.

To the person who uses music as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument.

The way I feel today, as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, still buy my CDs, I’ll keep playing until I feel like I can’t.

The true value of this music lies in an artist’s individual creativity and that unique process of expression which is Jazz.