Tom Harrell

Sounds of daily life are musical. I try to absorb the intricacies of sounds as if I were listening to music.

Jazz is such a powerful cultural statement that it’s almost as if it’s intertwined with society.

There are a million good tunes.

People who like Jazz feel the depth and soul and intelligence that the music expresses.

Using drugs didn’t help me play, all it did was hang me up for 15 years.

[On Louis Armstrong] You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him, not even modern shit. I can’t even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang.

It’s easier to copy someone else than to find out how to avoid sounding like someone else.

I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn’t only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around.

Women have not been socialized to play drums. It’s not natural for us to hit thing.

I can play all I know in eight bars.

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.

Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

[on B. B. King] Very seldom does he talks about the way he play, man. He always wanna talk about young women. And I fuss at him sometimes, I say, ‘Man I wanna know what did you do here!’

To get the music the way you want it, there’s a lot of work involved.

If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all

I learn something new every day.

The spirit of Jazz is the spirit of openness.