Stan Getz

I learn something new every day.

I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won’t come out.

You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.

Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn’t have a choice.

My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.

Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz.

I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He’s still a nice young man, only confused.

New artists can own their content and completely build their base and their following without having to sell or be owned by anybody and it creates such a diversity.

Vocalists must study music and know everything an instrumentalist needs to know.

When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

I’ve noticed that the more adventurous and in that mode that I am, it seems that the more the audience really likes it.

Actually, I think the more Ben [Taylor] sings, the less like James he sounds.

I kept thinking there’s bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn’t play it.

May your heart always be joyful. May your song always be sung.

I wanted to sustain a note like a singer. I wanted to phrase a note like a saxist. By bending the strings, by trilling my hand – and I have big fat hands – I could achieve something that approximated a vocal vibrato. I could sustain a note. I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions. By fooling with the feedback between my amplifier and instrument, I started experimenting with sounds that expressed my feelings, whether happy or sad, bouncy or bluesy. I was looking for ways to let my guitar sing.

Ah music… a magic beyond all we do here!

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

A wise man practices slowly; but a wiser man practices even slower.

Kinship doesn’t come from skin color. It’s in your soul and your mind.

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you’ve got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.

I don’t think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.