Count Basie

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

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

If a guy is gonna to play good bop, he has to have a sort of a bop soul.

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.

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.

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.

The violin, the saxophone, the trumpet: Each makes a very different sound but the very same notes. That’s pretty heavy, you know ? Imagine how many different races make up the human race. I’m called colored, you’re called white, he’s called something else. We still got an asshole and a mouth. Pardon me.

I think pop music is one of the few things in the 20th century that have made giant strides in reverse.

I tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an’ my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another.

Jazz standards are our contribution to music history.

It’s not that you want to sing, it’s that you have to sing.

This guitar is such a pal. It’s a psychiatrist. It’s a doggone bartender. It’s a housewife. This guy is everything. Whenever I find that I’ve got a problem, I’ll go pick my guitar up and play. It’s the greatest pal in the whole world.

I heard Mr. Wild Bill Davis. I heard him play in 1930 and he told me that it would take me fifteen years just to learn the pedals, the pedals of the organ and I got mad.

The deeper you get into the music allows the ability to appreciate art and all other forms of expression.

I cringed when I heard myself described as a Jazz singer. I’ve always thought of myself as a Jazz vocalist.

I started as a writer and when I sent my demos out everyone wanted to know who was singing and if that person wanted a record deal.

If you want to make money in music, get into the band uniform business.

Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I’ll give it to them.

I think the one thing that I’ve learned is that you cannot predict what’s going to happen. You can’t sit back and try to figure out what people want or leave it up to them to decide. When we all started in this business we would dictate to the audience what was great and they picked up on that based on the fact that we believed that it was great. But that’s all changed. What’s happened in the last ten years or so because is that the technology now means that everyone with a computer can make music and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

The emotional reaction is all that matters.

I think of guitar players in terms of doctors: you have the doctor for your heart, the cardiologist, then one that works on your feet, your leg. But I believe George Benson is the one that plays all over. To me, he would be the M.D. of them all.