Music is an addiction.
In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. Thats a little bit too much.
You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.
Music and life are all about style.
I don’t like to hear someone put down Dixieland. Those people who say there’s no music but bop are just stupid; it shows how much they don’t know.
When you’re creating your own shit, even the sky ain’t the limit.
I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
Jazz never ends… it just continues.
Beiderbecke took out a silver cornet, put it to his lips and blew a phrase. The sound came out like a girl saying ‘yes.’
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.
You don’t have to be Picasso or Rembrandt to create something. The fun of it, the joy of creating, is way high above anything else to do with the art form.
I think you have to leave a lot to the imagination!
The way I think about the practicing, it is my undercover work.
What have I got? No looks, no money, no education… just talent.
Don’t give up trying to do what you really want. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.
I can count on one hand the number of instrumental hits there have been over the last 10 years.
You can’t copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, you’re working without any real feeling.
I can play all I know in eight bars.
The minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.
Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.
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.
