Charlie Parker

Master your instrument, master the music and then forget all that and just play.

I kept thinking there’s bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn’t play it.

You’ve got to learn your instrument.

I can play all I know in eight bars.

If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

You get that right tickin’ rhythm, man and its ON!

When you want ’em you can’t get ’em, when you’ve got ’em, you don’t want ’em.

Music can’t save the world, but can make one a little calmer.

Despite the fact I’m a professional performer, it’s true that I have always preferred playing without an audience.

I was a nerd academically. But I was also an athlete and a musician. I never wanted to be shut out of any situation. I think it was that more than anything.

Let your life be your music and let your music be your life.

Typically I go in the studio and whatever I’m contemplating that day will wind up being a song. I don’t come in with lyrics… I just go in and let it happen.

Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.

Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

No, working is what will keep you alive.

I regard singing pretty much like acting. Each song is like playing a different role. I get very involved with my material. I feel a responsibility for the emotion it brings out in the listener.

I’m not really on a mission to tell anybody anything. I’d rather be figured out.

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.

I heard someone say ‘What’s that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let’s get started.’