Marilyn Crispell

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.

I look for a deep, gutty feelin’ in a guitar tone. I don’t use picks. People ask, “How you get that?” It’s just there. There’s a lot of people try to play real fast chords-da da da da da-that ain’t the hard, solid blues. It’s synthetic. It has not feeling to it. You sit down and play some funky, funky guitar. Take your time! Don’t rush it. Just let it come flowing through you. I can play guitar so funky, it’ll bring teardrops to your eyes.

Jazz is very much alive. Everywhere I go there’s a new generation of musicians playing Jazz music.

Spontaneously composed music is a counterpoint that has its own rules based on a natural order and intuitive logic.

Always look ahead, but never look back.

It’s part of what the blues does, to write about these things. JB Lenoir was the main one in this regard – he wrote about Korea, too, in fact. Songs that reflect these current situations – in his case, racial issues for the most part: in my case, what has happened to me, and I was in Korea.

I’m famous… ain’t that a bitch?

I think we musicians are emissaries. Every time we go before the public, we’re there to make converts.

When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

Today Jazz music is performed and listened to by people of all ethnicity, backgrounds, ages and creeds.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

Canada has a passive-aggressive culture, with a lot of sarcasm and righteousness. That went with my weird messianic complex. The ego is a fascinating monster. I was taught from a young age that I had to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.

She’s Dynamite’ was a 100 years ago, and I recorded that song because the company thought that it was a great song and it was hot. That was the beginning of rock n’ roll, and I guess they thought it would be a BB King version of rock n’ roll.

Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn’t have a choice.

Practice as if you are the worst, play as if you are the best!