Keep on listening & tapping your feet.

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.

If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune.

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

Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

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.'