Charlie Parker

Once I could play what I heard inside me, that’s when I was born.

You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

It’s not all smoke and mirrors. Some of it comes from books.

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

In Kansas City joints ran 9pm-5am. Pay was a $1.25 a night but somebody special like Count Basie could command $1.50.

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.

I wanted something very dense, something that would sustain long and more pieces of wood that would be soft, sweet, for more of a mellow sound.

Ah music… a magic beyond all we do here!

Jazz music will continue to thrive, possibly in unexpected ways.

You’ve heard me call myself a bluesman and a blues singer. I call myself a blues singer, but you ain’t never heard me call myself a blues guitar man. Well, that’s because there’s been so many can do it better’n I can, play the blues better’n me. I think a lot of them have told me things, taught me things.

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

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

We’re not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour.

A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside… I’m going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do.

In our local Baptist church, I sang in the choir and formed a gospel quartet. When our minister caught me messing with his guitar, he taught me three positions – one, four and five. After that, I taught myself to play.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.

Jazz music has become academic. Sometimes that doesn’t feel right to me.

When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins.

Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.

Jazz music is the power of now.