Frank Wess

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.

I’m sure critics have their purpose, and they’re supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what he did.

One of the great moments of my life was when I could write musician on my passport.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

If a Jazz musician plays someone else’s song, he has a responsibility to make a distinct and original statement.

A Les Paul, which is kind of a sissy guitar compared to a Strat anyway. The Les Paul is heavier, but because of that bulk you can do bends on it more easily. Also, the Les Paul’s lack of a vibrato arm means you’re not wrestling against the spring-loaded bridge all the time. The Strat is the ultimate because it’s like having a miniature pedal steel within it. Once you get familiar with it where the bends are and where they meld down into a fourth or whatever, you can do all kinds of pedal-steel-like things, which I think are cool..

I like the interplay in the music.

I have a deep respect for harmony, melodic patterns and form.

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

I didn’t get my music together until I was 40.

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

Everyone is working who should be.

Jazz music is the power of now.