Steve Winwood

Audiences are smart. They are not going to come out to see you unless you are honest.

Jazz is freedom. You think about that.

You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.

I am not interested in compromising my music to make it palatable to an assumed sub-standard mass.

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

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

Jazz is not a what, it is a how.

I’m trying to make music a sensual expression, not and academic experiment.

It’s the same for listeners. If you can’t stand your girlfriend, can’t take it anymore, put on your headphones and escape into another world.

I guess you can look at me, and tell I’m the old man. My name is BB King.

And ultimately the people who produce my records, they know that they’re here to serve the purpose of me expressing who I am at this period of time and augmenting that or pulling it forward and I love that process.

You have to understand the styles and it’s good to study those that came before us.

Jazz is the sound of surprise.

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

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