Quote collection
175 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Monk was a gentle person, gentle and beautiful, but he was strong as an ox. And if I had ever said something about punching Monk out in front of his face - and I never did - then somebody should have just come and got me and taken me to the madhouse, because Monk could have just picked my little ass up and thrown me through a wall."
"It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it."
"So What or Kind of Blue were done in that era, the right hour, the right day. It's over; it's on the record."
"You can't play anything on a horn that Louis Armstrong hasn't played"
"When you work with great musicians, they are always a part of you . . . their spirits are walking around in me, so they're still here and passing it on to others."
"Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?"
"I gave the album [You're Under Arrest] to Quincy Jones and he loved "D Train". We couldn't call it "D Train"; it's called "MDI/Something's On Your Mind/MD2". That's on the album."
"I'm out there doing the best that I can, My lip is cut and I'm still playing."
"I said to [Lionel] Richie, "Man, my wife says you must really respect women because you write such beautiful love songs.""
"I never thought that the music called "jazz" was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a museum thing locked under glass like all the other dead things that were once considered artistic."
"With "We Are The World," I can't even eat when I watch that on television. If I'm eatin' some food, I have to put it down. I feel very strongly about that."
"The music speaks for itself!"
"Dave [Holland] plays the way he wants to play. And it's usually what's needed. You know, Dave is such a deep thinker. You can't tell him too much, else it might spoil his spirit, you know."
"Trane was the perfect saxophonist for Monk's music because of the space that Monk always used. Trane could fill up all that space with all them chords and sounds he was playing then."
"Jazz is an Uncle Tom word. They should stop using that word for selling. I told George Wein the other day that he should stop using it."
"If I hear a song like "Time After Time." I'm sittin' there lookin' at video and Cindy Lauper comes on singin' this song. I said, "God damnnnnn!""
"Music is an addiction."
"It takes you years to learn how to play like yourself."
"I would never try and play like Harry James, because I don't like his tone - for me. It's just white. You know what I mean? He has what we black trumpet players call a white sound. But it's for white music ... I can tell a white trumpet player, just listening to a record. There'll be something he'll do that'll let me know that he's white."
"That's the way women do. The frown. They want to give you the attitude to approach them back, by giving you a negative vibe."