Chuck Israels

Excessive reverence for the romantic illusion of original thought is the most fraudulent and destructive element in Jazz education.

I always make it a point to pick songs on which players really shine.

Ah music… a magic beyond all we do here!

I’ve sung a lot of emotional songs, but when you’re writing it’s very difficult to decide what to reveal.

Every symphony, for example, is a sonata for orchestra; every string quartet is a sonata for four strings; every concerto a sonata for a solo instrument and orchestra.

It’s about getting the sound to flow from your body and allowing that sound to get to the piano.

We go in there and we work on altering those ideas and in many cases go in different directions.

I wanted to do the music, but not at the expense of being happy.

Bird said he worked as dishwasher at Onyx Club on 52nd St. in the early 1940s just to hear Art Tatum play.

I’m surprised Beyonce liked me. I met Beyonce!!

People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.

When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.

The challenge to the improvisor is to get permanence into his spontaneity. The challenge to the composer is to get spontaneity into his permanence.

Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you

We’re more popular than Jesus Christ now. I don’t know which will go first; rock and roll or Christianity.

I am only a mixture of countless influences and thanks to that I am able to find my own style of playing.