Kenny Garrett

The joy of music should never be interrupted by a commercial.

They’re not particular about whether you’re playing a flatted fifth or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance to it.

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

Without jazz, life would be a mistake.

Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.

It’s all music.

Judy Garland was the singer I most wanted to sound like then, not to copy, but to get some of her soul and purity. A wonderful young voice.

I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.

If you want to play somebody’s music, you’d better go into his house.

Man, you tell a story.

To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.

[In 1969] I think lyrics have always been important to any serious writer of music.

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history.

I say this because it’s a good message to give to young talents who feel as I used to. You hear musicians playing with great fluidity and complete conception early on, and you don’t have that ability. I didn’t. I had to know what I was doing. And ultimately it turned out that these people weren’t able to carry their thing very far. I found myself being more attracted to artists who have developed through the years and become better and deeper musicians.I believe in things that are developed through hard work.