Pat Metheny

I don’t worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about Jazz.

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a Jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

Jazz music will continue to thrive, possibly in unexpected ways.

The beauty of Jazz is that it’s malleable. People address it to suit their own personalities.

My first relationship to any kind of musical situation is as a listener.

Listening is the key to everything good in music.

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.

Do it again on the next verse and people think you meant it.

If you’re making money people don’t think you’re playing Jazz. When you’re not making money they think you’re a great Jazz musician.

But the guitar, my lady, whether well played or badly played, well strung or badly strung, is pleasant to hear and listen to; being so easy to learn, it attracts the busiest of talented people and makes them put aside loftier occupations so that they may hold a guitar in their hands.

Ah music… a magic beyond all we do here!

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

Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.

I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is ’cause I’m changing all the time.

You have to sound sad first, then maybe later you can sound good.

By and large Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

Most of the stuff I learned to play, I learned in high school. I had a band in high school, a jazz-fusion thing, and I was the keyboard player. I was interested in how the instruments worked and the theory behind playing with them.

Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.

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.

In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds.

In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds.