So What or Kind of Blue were done in that era, the right hour, the right day. It's over; it's on the record.

When the band plays fast, you play slow; when the band plays slow, you play fast.

I can tell. I'm gifted with that, you know. When I hear that the tempo is slightly off, it's hard for me.

If you got up on the bandstand at Minton's and couldn't play, you were not only going to be embarrassed by the people ignoring you or booing you, you might get your ass kicked.

I've gotten hernias from drummers when they drop tempo.

The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.

John Lee Hooker is the funkiest man alive