“It took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to listen five minutes and understand it?”

Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!

Always listen for what you can leave out.

My father’s rich, my momma’s good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I’ve never suffered and don’t intend to suffer.

There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.

If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can’t be trusted.

I’m out there doing the best that I can, My lip is cut and I’m still playing.

It takes a long time to sound like yourself.

I don’t pay no attention to what critics say about me, the good or the bad. The toughest critic I got is myself…and I’m too vain to play anything I think is bad.

Food makes my mind sluggish.

If you love them in the morning with their eyes full of crust; if you love them at night with their hair full of rollers, chances are, you’re in love.

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.

Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery.

I’m sorry that I did not become the world’s first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.

You see, to me, the art of music is listening to it, not playing it. The real art of it is hearing it.

To a musician or songwriter, your canvas is silence.

I don’t wave a flag for anything. I’m a musician.

Guitar is easy, all it takes is 5 fingers, 6 strings and 1 a**hole.

If You can play Your stuff in a pub, then You´re a good band.

A painter’s got a canvas. The writer’s got reams of empty paper. A musician has silence.

The beatles were always a great band. nothing more nothing less.