Joe Lovano

Jazz without the Blues is like BBQ without the sauce.

Don’t settle for style. Succeed in substance.

It’s like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.

If you want to be a musician, study your craft. Study music.

Jazz music is a special skill that has brought pleasure to millions throughout the world.

For me, music and life are all about style

Everybody that you could name would join in our audiences from, Laguardia on down. Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club.

In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that no one else has thought of.

[Stratocaster vs Les Paul] It’s a totally different animal. One is for very subtle and, I would say, more musical things that you can distract and abuse. You can’t do that with a Les Paul. It’s too delicate. It’s got a very delicate tone; most people don’t ever realize that because they are plugged into monstrous amplifiers which completely, instantaneously covers up the unique sound quality it has. All those years of development go straight out the window when you overload the amp.

I don’t like to look back because the whole point in Jazz is doing it now.

In this trumpet I hear our icons and the sound of the future.

Excessive reverence for the romantic illusion of original thought is the most fraudulent and destructive element in Jazz education.

I was probably six years old when I first sang before an audience.

Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.

I’m trying to make music a sensual expression, not and academic experiment.

You have to practice improvisation, let no one kid you about it!