Boris Vian

It was a great thrill to listen every night and hear him on NBC radio. Les played just as great then. And then later on, in the 1950s, Les Paul turned the whole world on to guitar. He’s just a terrific, flashy, tasty guitarist.

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.

I’ve always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting.

If there is no dance, there is not music.

Musically, I love to talk just off the top of my head and that’s what Jazz is all about.

I would’ve loved to have been in a band, but sadly I just wasn’t good enough.

Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that’s it. No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa.

Joe’s been my drummer for 14 years, and we’ve been buddies for six years.

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

I felt like I was making a record under the radar, and that is my favorite way to do anything.

A band ought to have a sound all of its own. It ought to have a personality.

Damn it, when I’m bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic: take it or leave it.

I am an improviser, I improvise music. Whatever you want to call it, it’s all improvised music. I may capture it and go back and write it down for others, but it was originally improvised.

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

I got a chance to listen to and watch Thelonious Monk and his quartet play two shows a night, for six weeks. It was a great education. There was my university, man.