Thelonious Monk

All musicians stimulate each other. The vibrations get scattered around.

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.

I find my inspiration in myself.

[on Ornette Coleman] Man, that cat is nuts!

I’m famous… ain’t that a bitch?

Play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing even if it does take them 15, 20 years.

After I left Texas and went to California, I had a hard time getting anyone to play anything that I was writing, so I had to end up playing them myself. And that’s how I ended up just being a saxophone player.

For me, music and life are all about style

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.’

As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction.

The fans dictate to you when you’re done!

Last time I saw Count Basie, he was in a wheelchair. They wheeled him up onto the stage, he sits down at the piano, and he gives the downbeat, and that band played like they were in heaven. And right in the middle, the band cuts. He had to take one hand and put the other on it, and he comes down with one note. And it was the greatest note I ever heard in my life.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

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

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

Music chooses her musicians.

A Les Paul, which is kind of a sissy guitar compared to a Strat anyway. The Les Paul is heavier, but because of that bulk you can do bends on it more easily. Also, the Les Paul’s lack of a vibrato arm means you’re not wrestling against the spring-loaded bridge all the time. The Strat is the ultimate because it’s like having a miniature pedal steel within it. Once you get familiar with it where the bends are and where they meld down into a fourth or whatever, you can do all kinds of pedal-steel-like things, which I think are cool..

In this era it’s harder for musicians to get together, … Back in the ’80s, we were all at the clubs, you ran into people all the time. Now, everybody’s kind of in their own room with their computers. I use making an album as an opportunity to connect with musicians.

It’s not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

There’s always this sound out there that’s just a little beyond my reach and that just sort of keeps me going.

Rather than say I play Jazz, I simply say I play music.