Bill Evans

I’m using the insides of sounds to move around in a very subtle way which, I think, ends up being inevitable. I feel its the only solution to that particular problem that I presented myself.

Talent is cheap, and many talents treat themselves cheaply.

Jazz is not a what, it is a how.

Technique is the ability to translate your ideas into sound through your instrument.

Jazz music has always been a place where anything is possible.

Jazz isn’t a what, it’s a how.

You don’t rehearse Jazz to death to get the camera angles.

Dog spelled backward is God. That’s pretty heavy.

Music must be an innovation.

When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.

You don’t have to be Picasso or Rembrandt to create something. The fun of it, the joy of creating, is way high above anything else to do with the art form.

Play the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you play.

True Jazz lovers understand the rhythms are infectious because they are the roots.

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.

Jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

To rise above the crowd, discipline yourself unceasingly to the strict demand and realities of your ambition.

If a jazz player is really playing, the classical player will have to respect him.

There are a million good tunes.

I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. It’s time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. It’s time for us to do it ourselves and tell it like it is.

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

I love it. When they stop imitating me then I’ll start wondering where I’m going wrong. Every day when I sit down to play, I learn something new.