Eric Dolphy

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

Jazz is a democratic musical form. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty.

I love it when people hear my music but can’t figure out what instrument I’m playing.

I loved the feeling that I got singing.

How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

I learned to play guitar on my lying back while I was bed-ridden. I only thought to record the songs because sometimes I would I couldn’t remember what I had just done. Eventually I started singing, because I thought if I sang it that would help to remember even more. But I wasn’t trying to sing. And then one day-this is really weird -I just wrote a song. It came out at a rapid rate and I recorded it and I listened back to it and was like ‘Wow, it’s a tune’.

They told me to play what I felt. Hey, I’m a Jazz musician, that’s what I do.

If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

I’m on some singer’s record date for a demo and I get a note to call Miles Davis. Of course, I didn’t believe it, but I wasn’t going to take a chance by not calling, and it was Miles. He said, ‘I’ve got a session in an hour over at Columbia, can you make it’

Keep on listening and tapping your feet.

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

Critics get a little carried away with what someone should have done, rather than what he did.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

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 don’t intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I’ll be around I don’t intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don’t want to die at 40.