Cecil Taylor

I discovered very early that it wasn’t quite enough for me to imitate people.

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

People will hire you and then tell you not to do what you were doing when they heard you.

In this trumpet I hear our icons and the sound of the future.

It’s just exciting to be part of something that is brand-new.

There’s a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste.

He knows I rip him off every day. He’s the godfather for me. Nobody can say they aren’t influenced by what Stevie Wonder has done.

You don’t know what you like, you like what you know. In order to know what you like, you have to know everything.

It’s a matter of who would be right for each song. Mickey Hart for ‘All We Need is An Island’ – he’s the only guy I know who has Tahitian drums and every kind of drum on the planet.

I hate to think of Jazz as black and white, something political.

Jazz came to America three hundred years ago in chains.

My music is Jazz.

Music is the most fantastic drug there is!

Stevie didn’t use the technology to drive the song. He used it to enhance. I use the tools to further my work, I don’t use my work to further the tools.

I can’t sing it straight. I have no choice but to swing it.

Play what you feel, feel what you play.

I can’t understand guys who just have to have your autograph. What do you do when you get home, take it out and look at it?