I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can't define it beyond that.

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

All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel ... and that's what I've been doing all my life.

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.

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'll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I'd never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I'd never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn't much like it at first.

Oscar Peterson plays the best ivory box I've ever heard.