Lionel Hampton

I think I love it more as I get older because I keep getting better on drums, vibes and piano.

Music was our wife and we loved her. We stayed with her, clothed her and put diamond rings on her hands.

I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s.

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.

Playing is my way of thinking, talking, communicating.

Talk of God is most often in church. Is there a God outside of church? I hope so. But how should I know? How does anybody know?

All musicians stimulate each other. The vibrations get scattered around.

You blows who you is.

However it goes, I’ll just keep playing. That’s where the basic satisfaction is at.

I don’t believe music can be free unless it has something to be free from.

Don’t settle for style. Succeed in substance.

I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat.

And if I had a preference, it would be to be able to not be in the studio until 4 in the morning.

What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?

Music isn’t just learning notes and playing them. You learn notes to play the music of your soul.

In my opinion, I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.

Jazz improvisation is the art of collective negotiated expression.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

I asked my mother could I have an instrument. She said, ‘Well if you go out and save your money.’ So I went and got – I made me a shine box. I went out and started shining shoes, and I’d bring whatever I made.

If I could sell 500 million records every time, it would be great. But I’ve also had the luxury experience of having it when I was a teenager, in a very kind of model version of it.