It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play.
Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.
Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.
If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.
Jazz isn't dead. It just smells funny.
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.
Life is a lot like jazz. It's best when you improvise.
By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.
The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.
I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.
Never play anything the same way twice.
They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.
Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
Man, there's no boundary line to art!
There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
Women and rhythm-section first!?
It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.
or simply:
