Oscar Peterson

I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.

I don’t do something because I think it’ll sell 30 million albums. I couldn’t care less if it sells just one.

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

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.

I play as I feel.

Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they’re trying to say with jazz. You don’t need any prologues, you just play. If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

You must own it to play it.

Our music artistry should not be disconnected from our lives or ourselves.

The spirit of Jazz is the spirit of openness.

I’m going to be on the road for the rest of my life.

It’s Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, you know. They got a musical mind together and uh, you can’t explain it.

It’s always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don’t know where it comes from, it’s just there and I don’t question it.

If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all

I think I’ve tried to stay true to my music since the beginning. It’s kind of hard because of the access and technology but I just do what I do.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

The jazziest American contribution to the vocabulary of English is Jazz itself.

A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other’s ideas.

Technique is the ability to translate your ideas into sound through your instrument. This is a comprehensive technique . . . a feeling for the keyboard that will allow you to transfer any emotional utterance into it. What has to happen is that you develop a comprehensive technique and then say, forget that. I’m just going to be expressive through the piano.

If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time!

What I’m doing, I prefer to call that jazz, because it is a beautiful word – I love it.

Beiderbecke took out a silver cornet, put it to his lips and blew a phrase. The sound came out like a girl saying ‘yes.’