Terri Lyne Carrington

Our music artistry should not be disconnected from our lives or ourselves.

Once you have been bitten by the Jazz bug, it is not a choice anymore.

Jazz means many things to many people, but it’s all about choices.

Women bring something different to an instrument if they are respectful of their feminine aesthetic.

A chimpanzee could learn what I do physically, but it goes way beyond that. When you play, you play life.

If you want to be a good blues singer, people are going to be down on you, so dress like you’re going to the bank to borrow money.

I’ll play it first and tell you what it is afterwards.

I loved Billie Holiday more than any other person other than myself on the stage.

Sometimes when you start losing detail, whether it’s in music or in life, something as small as failing to be polite, you start to lose substance.

In our local Baptist church, I sang in the choir and formed a gospel quartet. When our minister caught me messing with his guitar, he taught me three positions – one, four and five. After that, I taught myself to play.

I’m not really on a mission to tell anybody anything. I’d rather be figured out.

Being a Jazz musician is not a rose garden!

Jazz music is our original American culture.

Music used to be essential and meaningful, but now it’s disposable.

I am attracted to Jazz music for the idea of being in the moment and communicating to people spontaneously.

It’s not what you do, but the way you’re doing it and in the end that’s all that we have.

Everything I’ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists… I’ve worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.

The first time I went to Paris, it just felt like I was home. I didn’t question it.