Oscar Peterson Quotes

• The music field was the first to break down racial barriers, because in order to play together, you have to love the people you are playing with, and if you have any racial inhibitions, you wouldn't be able to do that.

  Oscar Peterson

  Music, Order, Play

  FaceBook post by Oscar Peterson from Aug 23, 2010

  74 Copy quote

• If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

  Oscar Peterson

  People, Ifs

  32 Copy quote

• It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo.

  Oscar Peterson

  Important, Sound, Groups

  FaceBook post by Oscar Peterson from Jan 24, 2012

  19 Copy quote

• It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz.

  Oscar Peterson

  Music, Important, Sound

  FaceBook post by Oscar Peterson from Oct 15, 2013

  36 Copy quote

• I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.

  Oscar Peterson

  Music, Believe, Ideas

  26 Copy quote

• 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.

  Oscar Peterson

  Music, Philosophical, Play

  FaceBook post by Oscar Peterson from Mar 10, 2015

  28 Copy quote

• I don't do something because I think it will sell 30 million albums. I couldn't care less. If it sells one, it sells one.

  Oscar Peterson

  Thinking, Albums, Care

  22 Copy quote

• I'm a musician and, just as the critics are hard on me, I'm hard on the critics.

  Oscar Peterson

  Musician, Jazz, Critics

  33 Copy quote

• I don't require lust, sex, or classic beauty; I require trust, respect, and honesty. All else builds from there.

  Oscar Peterson

  Sex, Honesty, Lust

  17 Copy quote

• First of all, I swore it was two people playing. When I finally admitted to myself that was one man, I gave up the piano for a month. I figured it was hopeless to practice.

  Oscar Peterson

  Men, Piano, Practice

  15 Copy quote

• We're not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour.

  Oscar Peterson

  Night, Journey, Musician

  22 Copy quote

• Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing. I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea. I have no one style. I play as I feel.

  Oscar Peterson

  Believe, Play, Ideas

  FaceBook post by Oscar Peterson from Feb 12, 2016

  20 Copy quote

• He's not a performer, he's not a composer, he's not even a musician, but Norman Granz is Mr. Jazz.

  Oscar Peterson

  Musician, Jazz, Composer

  19 Copy quote

• Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.

  Oscar Peterson

  Long, Clubs, Jazz

  9 Copy quote

• I despair about the lack of proper respect shown for the piano. If you want it to sound like a traffic jam, go out in the street and forget the piano. That's not a piano sound.

  Oscar Peterson

  Piano, Despair, Want

  11 Copy quote

• I am the worlds laziest writer.

  Oscar Peterson

  World, Jazz

  11 Copy quote

• I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.

  Oscar Peterson

  Believe, Air, Long

  11 Copy quote

• Louie Bellson represents the epitome of musical talent. His ability to cover the whole musical spectrum from an elite percussionist to a very gifted composer and arranger never ceases to amaze me. I consider him one of the musical giants of our age.

  Oscar Peterson

  Musical, Age, Giants

  9 Copy quote

• If the average jazz artist uses his head and at the outset of his career realizes he won't play as well at fifty as he does at twenty-five, he won't be in a line-up outside the Salvation Army when he's fifty.

  Oscar Peterson

  Army, Artist, Average

  7 Copy quote

• Sweets [Edison] can say more with one note than any other Jazz player alive... an approach that stresses simplicity, glorious tone, natural potency and an unmatched affinity. He is a unique stylist in our music.

  Oscar Peterson

  Sweet, Stress, Unique

  8 Copy quote

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