If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune.
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.
If a guy is gonna to play good bop, he has to have a sort of a bop soul.
Keep on listening & tapping your feet.
I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, 'Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.'