Joe Williams

You can’t rehearse a blues darlin’.

Musicians have the intimacy of bringing two people together and the aesthetic, romantic transference.

The louder they [the band] play the softer I sing.

Jazz has an aesthetic intimacy, a romantic transference.

All this is saying is, OK I see now, the ‘hood does not quite want Shirley Bassey yet, so let me still give them this. Crack Music was made after Diamonds. After black people were like, ‘I don’t know about this one.’ It was like me reaching too high for the cookie jar.

I don’t want to sing anything that doesn’t come real.

It’s the same for listeners. If you can’t stand your girlfriend, can’t take it anymore, put on your headphones and escape into another world.

I loved Billie Holiday more than any other person other than myself on the stage.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

Jazz musicians are the only workers who will put in a full shift for pay and then go somewhere else and continue to work for free.

Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave it alone.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

Once we’re inside a tune, we can do anything with it.

After two takes you’re imitating yourself.

By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

Check out the albums, … Check out the live performances. That’s the reality of it all. Music is such an energizing thing.

Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

I’ve always depended upon my own melodic instinct, instead of scale like formulas.

I’m using the insides of sounds to move around in a very subtle way which, I think, ends up being inevitable.