Gary Burton

Inspiration comes from tunes you play, other musicians and your own imagination.

Always keep reaching.

I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

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

Musicians should never forget we’re blessed. We have a special gift that people enjoy through us.

It’s easier to copy someone else than to find out how to avoid sounding like someone else.

To compose music, all you need to do is remember a tune that no one else has thought of.

You can practice to learn technique, but I’m more interested in conceiving something in the moment.

Technique is the ability to translate your ideas into sound through your instrument. This is a comprehensive technique . . . a feeling for the keyboard that will allow you to transfer any emotional utterance into it. What has to happen is that you develop a comprehensive technique and then say, forget that. I’m just going to be expressive through the piano.

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light. Then I’m grateful.

Do not fear mistakes, there are none.

I don’t have a favorite song that I’ve written. But I do have a favorite song: ‘Always on My Mind,’ the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells.

You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.

It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of Jazz and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902.

[Ben Taylor] He is an interesting combination of the two of us. His voice box is more like mine but the way his tongue sits in his mouth, and the way he pronounces words, is just like James Taylor.