Woody Herman

We might as well swing boys, because Stravinsky cuts us all.

Many people forget that Jazz, no matter what form it takes, must come from the heart as well as the mind.

Jazz affirms the noblest aspirations of character, individual discipline, perseverance and innovation.

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music.

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It’s our great contribution to the arts.

I don’t think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life.

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

I asked my mother could I have an instrument. She said, ‘Well if you go out and save your money.’ So I went and got – I made me a shine box. I went out and started shining shoes, and I’d bring whatever I made.

To the person who uses music as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument.

Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

Difference between sex and love? Well, you’re not always sure you’re in love. But when you’re having sex, there’s really no mistaking it.

There’s a way of playing safe, there’s a way of using tricks and there’s the way I like to play which is dangerously where you’re going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven’t created before.

Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they’re trying to say with jazz. You don’t need any prologues, you just play. If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

There is no doubt that the first requirement for a composer is to be dead

I bought my first electric guitar when I moved to Memphis; a Gibson with a DeArmond pickup which I used with a small Gibson amplifier.

Jazz music today is from the head and not the heart.