J J Johnson

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

To me, singing is like talking. If it ain’t natural, it ain’t right.

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

I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy and Bird.

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

I’m just trying to create context for me to improve my musicianship.

Music was our wife and we loved her. We stayed with her, clothed her and put diamond rings on her hands.

I’ve always liked the Freddie King/B. B. King rich tone, and at the same time, I like the manic Buddy Guy/Otis Rush Strat tone. So I’m always caught in the middle of the Gibson and Fender sounds. If I’m playing my black [Fender] Strat, and I’m in the middle of a blues, I kind of wish I was playing a [Gibson] Les Paul. Then again, if I was playing a Les Paul, the sound would be great, but I’d be saying, “Man, I wish I had the Stratocaster neck!”

Music has to be accessible.

It’s a matter of who would be right for each song. Mickey Hart for ‘All We Need is An Island’ – he’s the only guy I know who has Tahitian drums and every kind of drum on the planet.

As long as I can say what it is that I need to say, then I’ll fit whatever I’m trying to say around a melody.

Get out there and improvise and take chances and don’t be a perfectionist.

I am a devout musician.

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music. That was his reason for being alive. Nothing else mattered except music, really.

My wife Martha used to call me Ol’ Lemon Face because of my facial contortions when I play Lucille. I squeeze my eyes and open my mouth, raise my eyebrows, cock my head and God knows what else. I look like I’m in torture, when in truth, I’m in ecstasy. I don’t do it for show. Every fiber of my being is tingling.

With songwriting I spend a lot of time living life, accruing all these experiences, journaling, and then by the time I get to the studio I’m teeming with the drive to write.