Kenny Barron

Jazz music today is from the head and not the heart.

I worked until I could play and do changes at any tempo in any key and said ‘What else is there?’ Now I’m finding out.

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.

The music scene is more competitive in the States.

I’m always looking for ways to develop as a Jazz artist, to find different ways of using my voice.

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

Indian music is very soulful and the only other school that develops improv to the high degree you find in Jazz.

It’s not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

I kinda went back to that period between ’88 and ’94 where I felt like I was the most creative, without being hindered by powers that be. I was no longer going to try to hinder myself to what I thought was going to be on the radio.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write to ultimately be at peace with himself.

We go in there and we work on altering those ideas and in many cases go in different directions.

In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much.

I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

Silence is what makes music sexy. I just move blocks of silence around. The notes are an afterthought.

Art [Blakey] would take young people with a potential and help them develop a voice as a player and as a writer.

If one were asked to name one musician who came closest to composing without human flaw, I suppose general consensus would choose Johann Sebastian Bach.