The Blues is never old.
You have to understand the styles and it’s good to study those that came before us.
Vocalists must study music and know everything an instrumentalist needs to know.
I was walking down the street, and I saw a sewer digger on his lunch hour open his lunch pail, dig out a harmonica, knock out the cracker crumbs, and play a bunch of tunes on it. I was fascinated by that harmonica, so I stared the guy out of it. I just stared at him. He said, Here, kid, take it. Get out of here.’
Get around, be on the scene, play it clean, be seen, be keen and be over eighteen.
Jazz is not a what, it is a how.
Do it again on the next verse and people think you meant it.
Im using the insides of sounds to move around in a very subtle way which, I think, ends up being inevitable. I feel its the only solution to that particular problem that I presented myself.
You don’t rehearse Jazz to death to get the camera angles.
To play without passion is inexcusable.
My improvisations are a beguiling mixture of the vertical and the horizontal.
Musicians have a really big part to play in spreading messages because they’re able to reach a large portion of people on an emotional level. Artists reach people at their heart; it’s the only time we meet in one place and put our differences aside. When you’re in a forum listening to music, all you feel in that moment is love and the understanding.
If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.
I’ve been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer.
Men have died for this music. You can’t get more serious than that.
You can’t seperate modern jazz from rock or from rhythm and blues – you can’t seperate it. Because that’s where it all started, and that’s where it all come from – that’s where I learned to keep rhythm – in church.
I learn something new every day.
