George Gershwin

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.

Life is a lot like jazz. It’s best when you improvise.

Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.

The more you listen, the more your hear.

Musicians need enough experience to develop a vocabulary.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands …If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit.

Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain’t.

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

I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.

When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don’t even notice.

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

Jazz music is the power of now.

Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

You don’t chose your inspirations, they chose you.

For me, the Les Paul is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll guitar of all time. If you’re not playing a Gibson guitar and you’re playing this kind of music, whether it’s punk, metal or anything grounded in rock ‘n’ roll, you’re not really doing it right. I don’t think professionally I’d every play anything else. Gibson, thank you for making greatest guitars ever.

You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you’re really interested in it.

Hipness is not a state of mind, it’s a fact of life.

I liked blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that. But I had an aunt at that time, my mother’s aunt who bought records by people like Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and a few others.