J J Johnson

Sometimes you need to stand with your nose to the window and have a good look at Jazz.

Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.

If your dreams don’t scare you they’re not big enough!

Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn’t have a choice.

Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.

Just ’cause I’ve forgotten more than I can play, doesn’t mean it’s not Improv.

Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.

Don’t bullshit, just play.

It’s all music.

I had a really good time in New Orleans, although I had some very tragic times in Baton Rouge. Some guys beat me up and threw my horn away. ‘Cause I had a beard, then, and long hair like the Beatles.

Jazz has evolved with an inner necessity characteristic of any true art form.

I always liked the steel guitar. I also love the guys that play the bottleneck. But I could never do it; I never made it do what I want. So every time I would pick up the guitar, I’d shake my hand and trill it a bit. For some strange reason my ears would say to me that sounds similar to what those guys were doing. I can’t pick up the guitar now without doing it. So that’s how I got into making my sound. It was nothing pretty. Just trying to please myself. I heard that sound.

I played in rhumba bands, mickey mouse bands; all kinds of bands.

You want the audience to feel what you’re doing.

Love is sweeping the country.

I heard someone say ‘What’s that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let’s get started.’