Music is interior decoration.
A series of vibrations. What does it matter, the source of the catalyst?
I always think of music as interior decoration. So, if you have all kinds of music, you are fully decorated!
Your humanity is your instrument.
Music should not have any mandates. Jazz is not supposed to be something that is required to sound like jazz.
The word “jazz” means to me no category, but when you get stuck into wanting to do something the way it was with the “jazz emblem” or logo chained around your neck, you play in a frozen moment in time and you keep fermenting the ‘fifties saying jazz should be this way or that. Well, if jazz to me means no category, then I’ve got the green light And if it sounds like.. sounds like.. sounds like, and keeps crossing over, it’s what I wanted to do in the first place. I like the way Stravinsky and those guys did things. They expressed something, if not themselves. In fact, some people talk about expression, but expression really doesn’t mean anything to me because there’s a lot of work which goes into building a drama and then it’s up to other people to offer “expression.” Expression is such a nebulous thing.
Clouds float in the same pattern only once.
We in the Western world suffer from too many categories and classes; weve forgotten that we all still have diapers on. Weve separated music from life.
Keep searching for that sound you hear in your head until it becomes a reality.
Sometimes I sound like gravel and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.
I feel I have only scratched the surface of what I know I am capable of doing.
A good bassist determines the direction of any band.
Sometimes it’s to your advantage for people to think you’re crazy.
Canada has a passive-aggressive culture, with a lot of sarcasm and righteousness. That went with my weird messianic complex. The ego is a fascinating monster. I was taught from a young age that I had to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.
When you listen to a pianist, each notes should have an identity, each note should have a soul of its own.
Black and white players hadn’t appeared together in public before Teddy Wilson and I began working with B.G.
For me, I started on a Les Paul and went through years of playing other guitars and just came back full circle to what was more natural to me.
Music is what I hear and something that I live by.
It’s not uncomfortable for me to be a sideman, but I feel more comfortable as a bandleader.
I don’t get jazz. It always sounds like a bunch of toddlers let loose in a music room.
I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel.
I never heard of a Jazz musician who retired. You love what you do, so what are you going to do… play for the walls?
