The time is now.
Music is your 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.
Once I could play what I heard inside me, that’s when I was born.
Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.
I am a devout musician.
I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That’s when I was born.
Man, if you gotta ask you’ll never know.
Applause felt like approval and it became a drug that soothed the pain, but only temporarily.
The whole concept for the Yeezus album is that we’re not going to be using CDs in the future and since this is the last time we’re going to see it, this is an open casket for the CD.
Jazz is a mental attitude rather than a style. It uses a certain process of the mind expressed spontaneously through some musical instrument. I’m concerned with retaining that process.
I’m gonna live till I die.
You can be beyond yourself, better than your technique, better than most of your usual ideas.
I say this because it’s a good message to give to young talents who feel as I used to. You hear musicians playing with great fluidity and complete conception early on, and you don’t have that ability. I didn’t. I had to know what I was doing. And ultimately it turned out that these people weren’t able to carry their thing very far. I found myself being more attracted to artists who have developed through the years and become better and deeper musicians.I believe in things that are developed through hard work.
I’ve tried all my life to avoid copying. If I can’t be myself, there’s no point being in Jazz.
I want to keep redefining my work and trying new things. I want my music to be able to fit into any category. I want it to float wherever my heart goes. My music is heart music; giving it any other description is dangerous.
Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.
One of the reasons we’re here is to be a part of this process of exchange.
People always ask, “Why jazz?” and I’m like “Why not?” It’s kind of like asking Seurat, “Why so many dots?” I imagine if you asked Bjork, “Why the Tibetan bells?” She’d probably be like “That’s just what I heard.” It’s the same thing. This is just the way I see music.
I’m not thinking about what needs to be on the radio. I’m not thinking about anything other than – I’m just going to let this music come out of me and not have any sort of preconceived notion of what I should do. I’m just going to do it.
You have a mentor or teacher and you learn all he can show you.
It’s true I’ve always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.
