Ira Gershwin

One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them.

Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.

Our music is generally the music I would play way back when I was in the record business. So I’ll play World Waiting For The Sunrise and How High The Moon, maybe Over The Rainbow, some standards. But it depends upon the artist that comes up – if people like a certain kind of music, I will focus the show that way. Whoever walks up on to the stage is the star – he is the picture, we are the frame. The frame is there to make the star look better – let’s make this fellow the best he’s ever going to be.

Keep on listening and tapping your feet.

I think I love it more as I get older because I keep getting better on drums, vibes and piano.

Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

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

I have always seen Jazz as innovative.

I am only a mixture of countless influences and thanks to that I am able to find my own style of playing.

Jazz stands for freedom.

Jazz is not gonna be a dinosaur and stay around in one form.

When I heard T-Bone, I flat out lost my mind.

I like to sleep. There is no set time of day for sleep. You sleep when you’re tired and that’s all there is to it.

We really never know what we’re gonna play when we get on stage.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

A guy is influenced by hundreds of people and things, and all show up in his work. To fasten on any one or two is ridiculous. I will say one thing, though. Lennie Tristano’s early records impressed me tremendously. Tunes like ‘Tautology,’ ‘Marshmallow,’ and ‘Fishin’ Around.’ I heard the fellows in his group building their lines with a design and general structure that was different from anything I’d ever heard in jazz.