Bill Evans

Especially, I want my work-and the trios if possible-to sing.

First of all, I never strive for identity. That’s something that just has happened automatically as a result, I think, of just putting things together, tearing things apart and putting it together my own way, and somehow I guess the individual comes through eventually.

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 didn’t even want to know about chords or anything – they didn’t even want to do anything that anybody had ever done, because they didn’t want to be imitators. Well, of course, this is pretty naive…but nevertheless it does bring to light the fact that if you’re 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 he’s going to be a serious jazz player, teaches himself.

You can’t explain Jazz to anyone without losing the experience because it’s feeling, not words.

Jazz is not a what, it is a how.

Keep searching for that sound you hear in your head until it becomes a reality.

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

I never set out to find a style of my own, it just happened.

Your own music comes out of your head and emotions, but it’s not etched in your system.

It’s important to reflect on what made Jazz so special.

I don’t really get nervous, I prepare. When the music messed up in the beginning, it tapped into my nerves and when you’re nervous and vulnerable, something special and something different can happen.

The beauty of Jazz is that it’s malleable. People address it to suit their own personalities.

When I was coming up, I practiced all the time because I thought if I didn’t I couldn’t do my best.

I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.

I’m not a star. I’m just backing up the cats.

I haven’t got a great jazz band and I don’t want one. Some of the critics, Down Beat’s among them, point their fingers at us and charge us with forsaking real jazz . . . It’s all in what you define as ‘real jazz.’ It happens that to our ears harmony comes first. A dozen colored bands have a better beat than mine. Our band stresses harmony.

To compose music, all you need to do is remember a tune that no one else has thought of.

I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.

Music is emotional, and you may catch a musician in a very unemotional mood or you may not be in the same frame of mind as the musician. So a critic will often say a musician is slipping.

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

The reward for playing Jazz is playing Jazz.