Eric Dolphy

Trying to play the new concept with a outward bound feeling.

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

The Jazz Age became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children’s party taken over by the elders.

I was always exposed to music. Mom and dad would have the radio on constantly.

On my album Here, that’s the first time that I’ve really understood how I could put all the things that were happening in the world and in my life and in our lives as just human beings into one body that was just so powerful and really had a perspective. That was an opening for me and I think that naturally, there is just so much to talk about. I don’t see me getting quiet anytime soon.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

I wanna hear myself everywhere

When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people.

You never master the instrument. You always just strive to get better.

I got out of the car and there was a knife in my neck. The guy says, “Don’t move.” And the drummer got out of the car, and he got a gun in his head. This was my entrance to the South Side of Chicago. But it was necessary, because I wanted to play jazz.

You’re just a little too hip for the room. It’s not good to be too hip because two hips make an ass.

Whenever I’m in Kansas City, I think back to all the jazz-blues greats who played the blues here – like Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Jay McShann. I watched those guys jam in different places and heard a lot of things – but I couldn’t do what they did. They were too good.

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.

If a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice.

I don’t think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life.

I don’t really live like a musician myself. I think music is just something that I do, but I’d like to be doing lots of other things. I like to cure all kinds of illness.