Jazz isn’t a what, it’s a how.
I always like people who have developed long and hard, particularly through introspection and a lot of dedication. I think that what they arrive at is, usually, deeper and more beautiful than the person who seems to have that ability and fluidity from the beginning.
I say this because it’s a good message to give to young talents who feel as I used to. You hear musicians playing with great fluidity and complete conception early on, and you don’t have that ability. I didn’t. I had to know what I was doing. And ultimately it turned out that these people weren’t able to carry their thing very far. I found myself being more attracted to artists who have developed through the years and become better and deeper musicians.I believe in things that are developed through hard work.
Jazz music has always been a place where anything is possible.
Jazz is not a what, it is a how.
Keep searching for that sound you hear in your head until it becomes a reality.
When you begin to teach jazz, the most dangerous thing is that you tend to teach style I had eleven piano students, and I would say eight of them didnt even want to know about chords or anything – they didnt even want to do anything that anybody had ever done, because they didnt want to be imitators. Well, of course, this is pretty naive but nevertheless it does bring to light the fact that if youre going to try to teach jazz you must abstract the principles of music which have nothing to do with style, and this is exceedingly difficult. So there, the teaching of jazz is a very touchy point. It ends up where the jazz player, ultimately, if hes going to be a serious jazz player, teaches himself.
I don’t think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life.
What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.
You can’t go to the store and buy a good ear and rhythm.
Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression.
The true musician is to bring light into people’s hearts.
Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.
On my album Here, that’s the first time that I’ve really understood how I could put all the things that were happening in the world and in my life and in our lives as just human beings into one body that was just so powerful and really had a perspective. That was an opening for me and I think that naturally, there is just so much to talk about. I don’t see me getting quiet anytime soon.
As far back as I can remember, singing was in my blood. My parents loved music, and I loved to sing. I was scatting at an early age.
There’s a spiritual satisfaction that one gets from listening and playing good Jazz.
Life is a lot like jazz. It’s best when you improvise.
I’m not like a legend that – so I’m sort of in the middle in this sort of gray area where, you know, I’m creating music, and I’m not saying there isn’t an audience, because there is; because all of those people go out and spend $80 to $150 on a concert ticket.
Music is an addiction.
To this day, no one has come up with a set of rules for originality. There aren’t any.
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.
