Maynard Ferguson

Change is always happening. That’s one of the wonderful things about Jazz music.

If you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterward.

I’ve noticed that the more adventurous and in that mode that I am, it seems that the more the audience really likes it.

Last time I saw Count Basie, he was in a wheelchair. They wheeled him up onto the stage, he sits down at the piano, and he gives the downbeat, and that band played like they were in heaven. And right in the middle, the band cuts. He had to take one hand and put the other on it, and he comes down with one note. And it was the greatest note I ever heard in my life.

The fans dictate to you when you’re done!

Well if I could play like Wynton Marsalis, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens.

If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.

I started as a writer and when I sent my demos out everyone wanted to know who was singing and if that person wanted a record deal.

To rise above the crowd, discipline yourself unceasingly to the strict demand and realities of your ambition.

When Bird came on the scene, it was shocking as in the Bible: everything was dark and then there was light.

Let me whisper it. Let me sigh it. Let me sing it, my dear or I will cry it.

Well, for me it’s – music is the instrument of life.

Jazz is a beautiful woman whose older brother is a policeman.

If a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice.

Art [Blakey] would take young people with a potential and help them develop a voice as a player and as a writer.