Dave Brubeck

My dream was to have a steady job, was not to be on the road, to exist like a guy that goes to work as a mechanic or a carpenter and knows he’s gonna have a job.

Damn it, when I’m bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic: take it or leave it.

I never wanted this kind of life that I’m still living.

Jazz stands for freedom.

I’m beginning to understand myself. But it would have been great to be able to understand myself when I was 20 rather than when I was 82.

And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into.

Miles Davis and John Coltrane were so cool, if alive today global warming wouldn’t be an issue.

Everything I record, I just try to sound like me and come up with songs that suit what I do and then just go for it. I never know what the public’s going to like, anyway.

Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking.

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It’s our great contribution to the arts.

It takes an intelligent ear to listen to Jazz.

Art should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise.

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

I’ve always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music.

I am attracted to Jazz music for the idea of being in the moment and communicating to people spontaneously.

I felt like I was making a record under the radar, and that is my favorite way to do anything.

Jazz music will continue to thrive, possibly in unexpected ways.

And ultimately the people who produce my records, they know that they’re here to serve the purpose of me expressing who I am at this period of time and augmenting that or pulling it forward and I love that process.

Django Reinhardt was fantastic. he must have been playing all the time to be that good.

They said Bird played bebop, but Bird could still swing. I’ve heard a lot of guys play bebop, but they wasn’t swinging.

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.