Ella Fitzgerald

The fabulous places I’ve been, wonderful things that’ve happened, great people I’ve met ought to make a story.

I sing like I feel.

Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

It isn’t where you came from, its where you’re going that counts.

Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

Don’t give up trying to do what you really want. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

I try stuff. I synthesize what’s of value with some of the other things I have at my disposal.

By and large Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music. Surprisingly enough, everyone doesn’t.

When Bird came on the scene, it was shocking as in the Bible: everything was dark and then there was light.

There are some people that if they don’t know, you can’t tell them.

Good Jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms and yells. Fine Jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great Jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of Jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.

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

The first time I ever had to go overseas for music was to play the Royal Festival Hall in London, singing in a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, and that week was insane: Thursday I rehearse with the orchestra; Friday I sing two songs in front of 2,500 people, which I have never done before; and the next day I go to Abbey Road to record with Herbie Hancock; and then I am playing a pub in south London somewhere, and nobody cares because London have lost some sporting match; and then I go home and I’m standing in front of my washing machine, putting my unmentionables into the dryer, and in that instant, I just looked at myself and said ‘This life is going to be strange’.

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

Jazz stands for freedom.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

People don’t want to suffer. They want to sound good immediately and this is one of the biggest problems.

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

When you are studying Jazz best thing to do is listen to records and live music as much you can and absorb everything.

The Blues contain so much joy and sadness at the same time.