To this day, I don’t like people walking on stage not looking good. You have to look good. If you feel special about yourself then you’re going to play special.
BENNY GOODMANTo this day, I don’t like people walking on stage not looking good. You have to look good. If you feel special about yourself then you’re going to play special.
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 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 GOODMANCreativity grows out of two things: curiosity & imagination.
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 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 a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice.
BENNY GOODMANIf I have something I want to do, I make a business of doing it.
BENNY GOODMANI don’t have any great love for Chicago. What the hell, a childhood around Douglas Park isn’t very memorable. I remember the street fights and how you were afraid to cross the bridge ’cause the Irish kid on the other side would beat your head in. I left Chicago a long time ago.
BENNY GOODMANToo many young musicians today want to win polls before they learn their instruments.
BENNY GOODMANIf you want to do something, you do it anyway, and handle the obstacles as they come.
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 GOODMANWhen I first arrived (in New York), it seemed to me the most terrifying city in the world… all those big buildings.
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 GOODMANYou have to have the courage and confidence in your own ability. You have to know what the hell and who the hell you are in this business. Music may change, but I don’t think that ever will.
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