Count Basie

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

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

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.

Count don’t do nothin’. But it sure sounds good.

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

I’ll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I’d never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I’d never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn’t much like it at first.

There’s two things you can’t live without. Water and music.

Once we’re inside a tune, we can do anything with it.

I have been doing music all my life so everyday when I get up I expect music will be part of it.

I try to practice with my life.

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

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

I don’t meditate before I play or compose, but I see playing and composing as meditative acts.

Jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

It made no sense to ignore them and to continue writing as if they did not exist. I felt that it was worth the effort to see if I couldn’t say what I had to say in the simplest possible terms.

What I look for in concert is a connection with the audience.

When there was vinyl, I just loved opening a record and smelling that wonderful smell.

Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

Music’s been around a long time, and there’s going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it’s a big record, that’s the frosting on the cake, but music’s the main meal.

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.

Music is a calling that you must bring your best to, whether listening, practicing or performing.