My music is Jazz.
External instruments are only extensions of the biological instrument.
There’s always room for improvisation or changes of expression.
I wasn’t so interested in being paid. I wanted to be heard. That’s why I’m broke.
Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.
[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!’
I’m a fan first. I believed Duke Ellington when he said there’s no bad music, just some of it is presented badly. As a kid, hanging around Church Street, the presentation of music was so powerful, I couldn’t help but jump for joy. I had discovered art, or truth, or whatever you want to call it; I had seen a light I’d follow forever.
Jazz is a living music; since its beginning has expressed the feelings, dreams and hopes of the people.
You give up your own personality when you imitate somebody.
One minute we’re over here, the next minute we’re doing something completely different. But it’s interesting because you are producing so many things you couldn’t do with analog.
[On the word Jazz] There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s only a word. What’s in a name? Nothing! Cats say, Call me Muhammed so-and-so. But what’s the difference? A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music. Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that’s it. No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa.
A good player can make any instrument sound good.
Jazz music has always been a place where anything is possible.
Jazz improvisation is the art of collective negotiated expression.
I’ve always had a deep love of live performance, it’s when I feel most alive.
Good Jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms and yells. Fine Jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great Jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of Jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.
I’m using the insides of sounds to move around in a very subtle way which, I think, ends up being inevitable.
