Horace Silver

Jazz music can relax, soothe and uplift the mind when you absorb it.

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

My chops were not as fast… [but] I just learned more on what was in my mind than what was in my chops. I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it’s the right one, and it will probably whip the guy with twenty notes.

I listen to everything, I listen to all artists that come along.

90%, 100% are going there to hear the singing. The story is another thing. Nobody’s interested in the story. Happiness is happiness.

Jazz is such a powerful cultural statement that it’s almost as if it’s intertwined with society.

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

Don’t settle for style. Succeed in substance.

I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

Anything I do has to be directly related to my music. If it isn’t, I don’t really see a point to it.

Jazz standards are our contribution to music history.

I have no one style.

The thing I always default to is that I’ll always be here to write songs.

The whole thing of being in music is not to control it but to be swept away by it.

I’m trying to get people to see that we are our brother’s keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues.

You can’t seperate modern jazz from rock or from rhythm and blues – you can’t seperate it. Because that’s where it all started, and that’s where it all come from – that’s where I learned to keep rhythm – in church.

The music field was the first to break down racial barriers, because in order to play together, you have to love the people you are playing with, and if you have any racial inhibitions, you wouldn’t be able to do that.