Doc Severinsen

I did go through a trial-and-error period where I tried out lots of different guitars, but within a couple of years I was right back to the Les Paul. From that point it’s stayed with me ever since. I have other guitars—and I love a lot of them—but I’m most at home on a Les Paul. It’s interesting: most of the time I would even rather make a Les Paul do the things those other guitars do. From the get-go, the Les Paul spoke to me.

Jazz is not to be sliced into bites by mass marketing geniuses who assume we are mindless cattle.

No one remembers who wrote the tune, putting pen to paper in some lonely place. They remember who had the hit.

The true value of this music lies in an artist’s individual creativity and that unique process of expression which is Jazz.

The fact that an artist is experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in it together.

Albert King wasn’t my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues!

I was not prepared to play the role of singer in the camp of the warriors

A beat is a moment in the life a groove.

Kinship doesn’t come from skin color. It’s in your soul and your mind.

Jazz is the sound of surprise.

I like the music. I love it and live it in fact, but for me the business part just plain stinks.

We quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

All the music that was ever heard came from the inner silence in every musician.

Keep searching for that sound you hear in your head until it becomes a reality.

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