Ray Brown

The better it gets, the fewer of us know it.

I went up to his [Hank Jones’] house and there were four guys there: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Max Roach. Not a bad place to be. Scared shitless, but a nice place to be on my second day in New York.

Jazz is something you have to feel, something you have to live.

If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

Jazz music has got to have that thing. You have to be born with it. You can’t even buy it. If you could buy it, they’d have it at the next Newport festival.

Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I’ll give it to them.

Music chooses her musicians.

I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.

Those who wish to sing, always find a song.

The whole concept for the Yeezus album is that we’re not going to be using CDs in the future and since this is the last time we’re going to see it, this is an open casket for the CD.

The greatest thing about music is putting it out there for people to figure out.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.

I’m not a star. I’m just backing up the cats.

So What or Kind of Blue were done in that era, the right hour, the right day. It’s over; it’s on the record.

I’m not thinking about what needs to be on the radio. I’m not thinking about anything other than – I’m just going to let this music come out of me and not have any sort of preconceived notion of what I should do. I’m just going to do it.

Notes are expensive… spend them wisely!

People don’t want to suffer. They want to sound good immediately and this is one of the biggest problems.