What we play is life.
Not too slow, not too fast. Kind of half-fast.
There is two kinds of music, the good and the bad. I play the good kind.
Hot can be cool and cool can be hot and each can be both. But hot or cool man, Jazz is Jazz.
If I don’t practice for a day, I know it… for two days, the critics know it… three days, the public knows it.
Man, all music is folk music. You ain’t never heard no horse sing a song, have you?
Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.
Jazz goes into my coffee in the morning, in my wine at night.
Bass players are always the intellectual kind, but nobody knows it.
I may be helping to bring harmony between people through my music.
To rise above the crowd, discipline yourself unceasingly to the strict demand and realities of your ambition.
You can separate the men from the boys and ballads.
When you hear somebody with balls, that’s me.
I’ll keep evolving and put that into my songs.
I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.
90%, 100% are going there to hear the singing. The story is another thing. Nobody’s interested in the story. Happiness is happiness.
I don’t get jazz. It always sounds like a bunch of toddlers let loose in a music room.
Music is the most fantastic drug there is!
If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.
I discovered very early that it wasn’t quite enough for me to imitate people.
Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about Jazz and Blues.
If music is sound and came from silence, then silence is potentially greater than sound.
