Joe Walsh

If I’m not saying it in four choruses or less, then I’m not saying it.

I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later.

If it wasn’t for hustlers, gangsters and gamblers there’d be no Jazz. Wasn’t middle-class who said Let’s go hear Bird tonight.

What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?

I learned my songs from the birds of the Brazilian forest.

You’ve got to be willing to put stuff on the line, otherwise it doesn’t have much meaning.

People all over the world have problems. And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

What don’t I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain’t nobody here saying, ‘You’d better learn this.’ But I still think I’ve got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me.

I’m always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.

Jazz is an art form that depends on its antecedents. There must be respect for the people that have gone before.

Jazz stands for freedom.

As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

Women have not been socialized to play drums. It’s not natural for us to hit thing.