Oscar Peterson

Some players get very philosophical and cerebral about Jazz. You don’t need any prologues, you just play.

I don’t believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.

You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That’s jazz.

He’s not a performer, he’s not a composer, he’s not even a musician, but Norman Granz is Mr. Jazz.

If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

We’re not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour.

I could see the blues was about survival.

The arranger doesn’t get any royalties, but I had so much fun doing it.

Keeping your artistic self as creative as possible is a balancing act.

I’m surprised Beyonce liked me. I met Beyonce!!

You can be beyond yourself, better than your technique, better than most of your usual ideas.

Music is the only language in which you cannot say anything sarcastic.

I used to play pianos in bars. You know in hotels, you’d see guys playing piano with a snifter? That was me, with a painted-on mustache. I was about 15.

I’m fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with.

I didn’t get my music together until I was 40.

Forget about upholding the tradition and just play who you really are.

Music to me is like breathing. I don’t get tired of breathing, I don’t get tired of music.

Leo wanted me to be partners with him – for it to be the Fender guitar: the Les Paul Fender. When he approached me with the idea, he brought over a guitar and he gave it to me and I have it here. And I thought, if I’m gonna do this I’m going to go with the biggest company in the world: Gibson. Why should I fool around with some guy who is not a musician – I should go to the Gibson people.

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

I write about moments, and I don’t make blanket statements about anything because no one has all the answers; nobody’s come up with a foolproof way to do anything when it comes to emotions.

When I was coming up, I practiced all the time because I thought if I didn’t I couldn’t do my best.