Jaco Pastorius

I’m not a star. I’m just backing up the cats.

We in the Western world suffer from too many categories and classes; we’ve forgotten that we all still have diapers on. We’ve separated music from life.

When you are studying Jazz best thing to do is listen to records and live music as much you can and absorb everything.

Our music artistry should not be disconnected from our lives or ourselves.

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

Music and life are all about style.

A great song can pull me out of a slump and lighten my heart.

If you don’t know what it is, don’t mess with it.

Practice as if you are the worst, play as if you are the best!

When Hank Jones had his night off, I would get somebody to take my place as intermission pianist and I’d play the show with Ella, so I would get a chance to play with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as well.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

Jazz has an aesthetic intimacy, a romantic transference.

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.

Talent is cheap, and many talents treat themselves cheaply.

You can be beyond yourself, better than your technique, better than most of your usual ideas.

Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain’t.