"The trouble with most musicians today is that they are copycats. Of course you have to start out playing like someone else. You have a model, or a teacher, and you learn all that he can show you. But then you start playing for yourself. Show them that you're an individual. And I can count those who are doing that today on the fingers of one hand."

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Source: Leston Havens (1996). “A Safe Place”, p.86, Harvard University Press

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Lester Young

Jazz Musician

Lester Young was a pioneering jazz saxophonist known for his smooth, lyrical style and significant influence on modern jazz musicians.

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Lester Young Jazz Musician

"Well, the way I play, I try not to be a 'repeater pencil', ya dig? Originality's the thing. You can have tone and technique and a lot of other things but without originality you ain't really nowhere. Gotta be original."

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