Herbie Mann

When you listen to someone improvise, the notes that are played are only half the story.

I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s.

I listen to all kinds of songs. There’s something to be learned from every type of music and from the one making it, whether it’s pop or jazz or hip-hop.

Jazz is so incestuous that it’s starting to kill itself.

In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds.

When there was vinyl, I just loved opening a record and smelling that wonderful smell.

I cannot say what I think is right about Music. I only know the rightness of it.

Music used to be essential and meaningful, but now it’s disposable.

Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave it alone.

Musically, I love to talk just off the top of my head and that’s what Jazz is all about.

Nothing is so well-prepared as a great spontaneous performance.

External instruments are only extensions of the biological instrument.

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

To me, the guitar cuts through. It carries more than the organ, but the organ has got more guts.

Les is an old friend of mine. He gave me this special white Les Paul – he wound the pickups himself – for my birthday, first time I met him. I play everything from heavy metal to blues to jazz on it. He just hit it right on the head when he designed the Les Paul. I like it better than most girlfriends I’ve had. The godfather of rock ‘n’ roll, I call him. Without him, none of us would have a job.