Tom Harrell

Whenever there’s a change with Jazz and its aesthetics, it’s almost always reflected with a change in the culture.

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

You can’t explain Jazz to anyone without losing the experience because it’s feeling, not words.

It’s all music.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

The deeper you get into the music allows the ability to appreciate art and all other forms of expression.

Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

I feel like….Music is the – it’s the answer. It’s the reason.

Jazzmen are our surrogates for the unpredictable, our paladins of constant change.

I think that what is important is that the music be honest and direct and that it is relevant to today.

Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.

We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about, but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.

We quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

There’s so many ways you can hit one note.

I have always seen Jazz as innovative.

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

Find the best teachers, listen to the finest playing and try to emulate that. Be true to the music.