I remember Glenn Miller coming to me once, before he had his own band, saying, How do you do it? How do you get started? It’s so difficult. I told him, I don’t know but whatever you do don’t stop. Just keep on going.
BENNY GOODMANI remember Glenn Miller coming to me once, before he had his own band, saying, How do you do it? How do you get started? It’s so difficult. I told him, I don’t know but whatever you do don’t stop. Just keep on going.
BENNY GOODMANIf you want to do something, you do it anyway, and handle the obstacles as they come.
BENNY GOODMANI think my first impression (of Bix Beiderbecke) was the lasting one. I remember very clearly thinking, ‘Where, what planet, did this guy come from? Is he from outer space?’
BENNY GOODMANSome of the guys I played with .. didn’t go around learning more about their instruments from an intellectual point of view. All they wanted was to play hot jazz, and the instrument was just a means.
BENNY GOODMANAfter you’ve done all the work and prepared as much as you can, what the hell, you might as well go out and have a good time.
BENNY GOODMANIf a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice.
BENNY GOODMANI’d never heard anything like the way he played-not in Chicago, no place. The tone-he had this wonderful, ringing cornet tone. He could have played in a symphony orchestra with that tone. But also the intervals he played, the figures-whatever the hell he did.
BENNY GOODMANThere was a refinement about his playing. You know, in those days I played a little trumpet, and I could play all the solos from his records, by heart.
BENNY GOODMANIf I have something I want to do, I make a business of doing it.
BENNY GOODMANI’d imagine that a lot of them criticized me-said my technique was too good. Something like that. But I’ve always wanted to know what made music. How you do it, and why it sounds good. I always practiced, worked like hell.
BENNY GOODMANThere was a lot of playing going on, and the New Yorkers, of course, were a completely different crowd from what I’d known.
BENNY GOODMANCreativity grows out of two things: curiosity & imagination.
BENNY GOODMANPeople have often said to me, ‘You’re so relaxed when you play.’ Relaxed my elbow. It’s practice.
BENNY GOODMANToo many young musicians today want to win polls before they learn their instruments.
BENNY GOODMANAs soon as it was understood that we could handle things in our own way, it was the thrill of my life to walk out on that stage with people just hemming the band in.
BENNY GOODMANSometimes when you start losing detail, whether it’s in music or in life, something as small as failing to be polite, you start to lose substance.
BENNY GOODMAN