Count Basie

I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can’t define it beyond that.

Well, if you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!

If you play a tune and a person don’t tap their feet, don’t play the tune.

I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch.

I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, ‘Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.

Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

No two people on earth are alike, and it’s got to be that way in music or it isn’t music.

Jazz is an art that makes a person completely naked.

Music and song are, in my opinion, so fine and necessary a part of life that without them we cannot be said really to live at all.

[on Django Reinhardt] By far the most astonishing guitar player ever … Django was quite superhuman, there’s nothing normal about him as a person or a player

You know the actor John Garfield? In one movie he walked up to this train station, the ticket booth, and the guy says, ‘Yes, where are you going?’ And he says, ‘I want a ticket to nowhere.’ I thought: that’s it. The freedom to do that. I want a ticket to nowhere.

Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are.

Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression.

Live music is best! Make plans to get out and support your local Jazz scene.

It’s just exciting to be part of something that is brand-new.

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history.

The first time I went to Paris, it just felt like I was home. I didn’t question it.

You’ve got to be willing to put stuff on the line, otherwise it doesn’t have much meaning.

Sometimes I sound like gravel and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.

Only play what you hear. If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.

You don’t chose your inspirations, they chose you.