If the average jazz artist uses his head and at the outset of his career realizes he won't play as well at fifty as he does at twenty-five, he won't be in a line-up outside the Salvation Army when he's fifty.

We're not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour.

I'm a musician and, just as the critics are hard on me, I'm hard on the critics.

Louie Bellson represents the epitome of musical talent. His ability to cover the whole musical spectrum from an elite percussionist to a very gifted composer and arranger never ceases to amaze me. I consider him one of the musical giants of our age.

I don't require lust, sex, or classic beauty; I require trust, respect, and honesty. All else builds from there.

He's not a performer, he's not a composer, he's not even a musician, but Norman Granz is Mr. Jazz.

I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.