Zoot Sims

Nobody has ever been able to define Jazz satisfactorily. This is probably because anyone who was capable of doing so never really wanted to, knowing how much you would have to leave out of the definition.

Now I need to take a piece of wood and make it sound like the railroad track, but I also had to make it beautiful and lovable so that a person playing it would think of it in terms of his mistress, a bartender, his wife, a good psychiatrist – whatever.

I discovered very early that it wasn’t quite enough for me to imitate people.

I try to practice with my life.

Play it f**kin’ loud!

I developed in my head that I’m never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it’s like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it’s more like concern. You’re concerned about the people – like meeting your in-laws for the first time.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

I don’t really live like a musician myself. I think music is just something that I do, but I’d like to be doing lots of other things. I like to cure all kinds of illness.

The sound of the orchestra is one of the most magnificent musical sounds that has ever existed.

I like to sleep. There is no set time of day for sleep. You sleep when you’re tired and that’s all there is to it.

I first fell in love with the piano, I knew it was me. I was dying to play.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it’s a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don’t listen.

I never thought about being famous or rich. I just thought, Oh, I’ll get a nice little girl and go and play every night, and I’d be happy. And that worked for a while. But the little girl’s mother didn’t trust a guy with a horn.

When I got pretty good I went on the road with a group. We starved.

Art should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise.