Chuck Mangione

I don’t believe music can be free unless it has something to be free from.

I kinda went back to that period between ’88 and ’94 where I felt like I was the most creative, without being hindered by powers that be. I was no longer going to try to hinder myself to what I thought was going to be on the radio.

Last time I saw Count Basie, he was in a wheelchair. They wheeled him up onto the stage, he sits down at the piano, and he gives the downbeat, and that band played like they were in heaven. And right in the middle, the band cuts. He had to take one hand and put the other on it, and he comes down with one note. And it was the greatest note I ever heard in my life.

Music is the shorthand of emotion

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

I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.

Always keep reaching.

Jazz music is collective creativity.

They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

Music doesn’t have to hop to be hip, as long as it swings it sings.

There are four qualities essential to a great Jazzman: taste, courage, individuality and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

The true musician plays what he/she hears. That cannot be a mistake.

My version of Georgia became the state song of Georgia. That was a big thing for me, man. It really touched me. Here is a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching.

I try to teach by example and not force ideas on a young musician. We’re here to be part of a process of exchange.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.