Music is a verb.
I don’t really live like a musician myself. I think music is just something that I do, but I’d like to be doing lots of other things. I like to cure all kinds of illness.
I think that those elements – light and sound – are beyond democratic. They’re into the creative part of life.
The idea is more important than the style you’re playing in.
Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.
I asked my mother could I have an instrument. She said, ‘Well if you go out and save your money.’ So I went and got – I made me a shine box. I went out and started shining shoes, and I’d bring whatever I made.
I’ve had those people very interested in my writing. Since I think of myself as a composer, I feel really good. I’ve had lots of guys call me up. I’ve gotten two or three commissions to write things. I’ve written lots of movie scores.
It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of Jazz and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902.
Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker’s next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now?
The better it gets, the fewer of us know it.
If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.
Music is like wine, the less you know about it the sweeter you like it.
It’s all music.
I’m a big fan of music, a student. I just wanna learn and keep enhancing my education about Jazz.
It doesn’t matter all that much. It’s just that when you’re playing, Stephane, you’ve got both Chaput and me backing you, but when I’m soloing I’ve only got one guitar behind me!
Everything I record, I just try to sound like me and come up with songs that suit what I do and then just go for it. I never know what the public’s going to like, anyway.
What I look for in concert is a connection with the audience.
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
By giving the public a rich and full melody, distinctly arranged and well played, all the time creating new tone colors and patterns, I feel we have a better chance of being successful. I want a kick to my band, but I don’t want the rhythm to hog the spotlight.
I thought of nothing else but rock ‘n’ roll; apart from sex and food and money–but that’s all the same thing, really.
Jazz is America’s classical music.
I wanna hear myself everywhere
