Keely Smith

This be an empty world without the blues.

Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.

When you’re creating your own shit, even the sky ain’t the limit.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

For me, music and life are all about style

Music is an addiction.

If I don’t learn something new every day, it’s a day lost

I like the interplay in the music.

I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.

I’ve tried all my life to avoid copying. If I can’t be myself, there’s no point being in Jazz.

Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.

Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.

I keep these songs in my head until I get behind the microphone. I never spend more than 30 or 40 minutes singing the vocal or it will sound mechanical. There are always mistakes, but it’s about feeling more than being perfect.

In the 1990s, with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, those really big female artists were very glamorous, it was all about the glamour at that time. And so there was a big switch, the desire to be more who you were, not so beholden to this whole standard of beauty. It was a liberation. You see Mary J Blige – she did the same, wearing the combat boots.

In Kansas City joints ran 9pm-5am. Pay was a $1.25 a night but somebody special like Count Basie could command $1.50.