Bill Evans

Music comes from the moment, it is spontaneous, it exists at the time it is created.

Jazz isn’t a what, it’s a how.

I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.

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

Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience.

I like people who have worked long and hard, developing through introspection and dedication.

I don’t intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I’ll be around I don’t intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don’t want to die at 40.

Whenever there’s a change with Jazz and its aesthetics, it’s almost always reflected with a change in the culture.

My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.

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.

One of the problems of people who live with pain is that they spend the whole day thinking about it, and it’s exasperating. But even when I am having a bad moment and I can’t get myself together, I get on stage and for an hour or two the pain becomes super-small. It’s about controlling the mind, telling the pain to step aside. Music does that. It’s the most fantastic drug in the world.

Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

The more you play, the more you hear and the more you hear, the more you want to play.

Rather than say I play Jazz, I simply say I play music.

What I’m doing, I prefer to call that jazz, because it is a beautiful word – I love it.

Miles told me not to use vibrato because when you get old, you’re going to shake anyway.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it’s a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don’t listen.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write to ultimately be at peace with himself.

A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music.

One minute we’re over here, the next minute we’re doing something completely different. But it’s interesting because you are producing so many things you couldn’t do with analog.