Ramsey Lewis

The Blues is never old.

Trying to play the new concept with a outward bound feeling.

Genius is a word too often tossed around in musical circles.

One of the advantages of growing older is you learn what to leave out.

Start well and end well. The middle will look after itself.

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

I’ve never recorded anything I didn’t like.

Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

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.

If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.

We all played bad before we played good.

To keep creating you have to be about change.

When you’re creating your own shit, even the sky ain’t the limit.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

My Strat is another arm, it’s part of me. It doesn’t feel like a guitar at all. It’s an implement which is my voice.