Peggy Lee

I regard singing pretty much like acting. Each song is like playing a different role. I get very involved with my material. I feel a responsibility for the emotion it brings out in the listener.

People involve themselves with the superficiality of Jazz without digging for its soul.

In this era it’s harder for musicians to get together, … Back in the ’80s, we were all at the clubs, you ran into people all the time. Now, everybody’s kind of in their own room with their computers. I use making an album as an opportunity to connect with musicians.

Learn the tunes by playing the masters, learn expression by playing yourself.

I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces, as opposed to what I see it being now, which is a way for me to actually communicate, and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.

I learn something new every day.

I was probably six years old when I first sang before an audience.

The Blues contain so much joy and sadness at the same time.

There is two kinds of music, the good and the bad. I play the good kind.

Every day I look forward to getting with my instruments, trying new things.

The weird thing about bass is the simplest stuff to do is the hardest.

You can have the greatest player in terms of mastering an instrument and be yawning your head off.

My chops were not as fast… [but] I just learned more on what was in my mind than what was in my chops. I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it’s the right one, and it will probably whip the guy with twenty notes.

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.

My audience was my life. What I did and how I did it was all for my audience.

Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It’s not an occupation or profession, it’s a compulsion.