Carla Bley

When you are studying Jazz best thing to do is listen to records and live music as much you can and absorb everything.

I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

..I wanted to create music that was so different that my mother could tell me from anyone else.

Trying to play the new concept with a outward bound feeling.

‘Swing’ is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a ‘swing band’ in music.

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

Well if I could play like Wynton Marsalis, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

Music always turns into music. As soon as I play a key, push a key down, there’s no theory any more. When I go and I hear a sound on the keyboard, all theories go out the window.

The fact that an artist is experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in it together.

I don’t like to look back because the whole point in Jazz is doing it now.

A beat is a moment in the life a groove.

If you’re trying to be hip, be hip!

The Jazz Age became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children’s party taken over by the elders.

Live music is best! Make plans to get out and support your local Jazz scene.

It bugs me when people try to analyze Jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not, it’s feeling.

You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you’re really interested in it.

I was really running a music school back then, because my band wasn’t making any money. I keep talking about money, because most people don’t understand the part of money in running a band.