A chimpanzee could learn what I do physically, but it goes way beyond that. When you play, you play life.

The secret to the sound is to drop the bass on the floor!

I took the frets out of my bass after I was getting into jazz a lot and I wanted to have that upright sound.

I'm not a star. I'll never be a Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley or a Ray Charles. I'm just an imitator, man. I'm doing a very bad imitation on the bass of Jerry Jemmott, Bernard Odum, Jimmy Fielder, Jimmy Blanton, Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, James Brown, Charlie Parker... the cats, man. I'm just backing up the cats.

All you've got to do is keep your ears open.

Music is in the air; it's my job to pull it out.

I'm not a star. I'm just backing up the cats.