Nat King Cole

I’m an interpreter of stories. When I perform it’s like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you’ve got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.

I can’t bear to see myself even in movies. The feeling is complex. I can’t stand the sight of myself.

Music is emotional, and you may catch a musician in a very unemotional mood or you may not be in the same frame of mind as the musician. So a critic will often say a musician is slipping.

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.

For years the Trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We practically starved to death.

Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.

Living is easy with eyes closed.

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

You’ve got to learn your instrument.

When you make a sound, it carries on to infinity. Sound is a vibration. Vibration is energy. All of that survives in space long after we’re dead. When I walk on stage at the Wiener Staatsoper, I can feel the footsteps of Chopin and Rachmaninov.

Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.

There’s so much music out there and so many possibilities. I like anyone who plays any instrument.

It became a kind of a game, to remember the things that had happened five minutes ago. I would start making notes about the things I was doing, on an instrument that was foreign to me, the guitar, so it was just a fun way of doing cognitive therapy. I was none the wiser to it until I began to improve and my ability to speak began to come back.

I like jazz, rock n’ roll, some hip hop – I can’t think of any music I don’t like.

Live music is best! Make plans to get out and support your local Jazz scene.

[On Louis Armstrong] You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him, not even modern shit. I can’t even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang.

Your own music comes out of your head and emotions, but it’s not etched in your system.

I have younger friends who don’t work and they aren’t doing so well. My secret is to keep going, keep working.

I have a sense of the importance of music and how powerful it is to bring people together.

I think pop music is one of the few things in the 20th century that have made giant strides in reverse.