Les Paul

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

..I wanted to create music that was so different that my mother could tell me from anyone else.

The audience, they’re not professionals. They just love music. It isn’t necessary to play over their heads to be admired.

There’s millions and millions of people who think Les Paul is a guitar!

Leo wanted me to be partners with him – for it to be the Fender guitar: the Les Paul Fender. When he approached me with the idea, he brought over a guitar and he gave it to me and I have it here. And I thought, if I’m gonna do this I’m going to go with the biggest company in the world: Gibson. Why should I fool around with some guy who is not a musician – I should go to the Gibson people.

My chops were not as fast… [but] I just learned more on what was in my mind than what was in my chops. I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it’s the right one, and it will probably whip the guy with twenty notes.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands …If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit.

The great jazz instrumentalists taught me how to sing and interpret a song. they showed me how a horn can have as much personality as an actor.

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

Audiences are smart. They are not going to come out to see you unless you are honest.

I’ve had the pleasure of playing with the baddest Jazz cats on the planet.

Your daddy’s rich and your ma is good lookin’ So hush little baby don’t you cry.

People all over the world have problems. And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.

It’s very difficult for me to dislike an artist. No matter what he’s creating, the fact that he’s experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in a brotherhood of some kind… we’re in it together.

Technique is the ability to translate your ideas into sound through your instrument. This is a comprehensive technique . . . a feeling for the keyboard that will allow you to transfer any emotional utterance into it. What has to happen is that you develop a comprehensive technique and then say, forget that. I’m just going to be expressive through the piano.

Jazz without the Blues is like BBQ without the sauce.

What we hear is the quality of our listening.

I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

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

While many forms of music may use the dynamic of improvisation, Jazz exemplifies the unique characteristic of collective improvisation.