Freddie Green has been my right arm for thirty years. And if he leaves the band one day, I'll probably leave with him.

I don't dig that two-beat jive the New Orleans cats play. My boys and I have to have four heavy beats to the bar and no cheating.

Keep on listening & tapping your feet.

I never thought innovation as such was very important. Not when you have to think about it... If you're going to come up with a new direction or a really new way to do something, you'll do it by just playing your stuff and letting it ride. The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter.

It's the way you play that makes it . . . Play like you play. Play like you think, and then you got it, if you're going to get it. And whatever you get, that's you, so that's your story.