Ray Charles

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we’re here to explore new possibilities.

Music to me is like breathing. I don’t get tired of breathing, I don’t get tired of music.

Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.

There’s nothing written in the Bible, Old or New testament, that says, If you believe in Me, you ain’t going to have no troubles.

Music’s been around a long time, and there’s going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it’s a big record, that’s the frosting on the cake, but music’s the main meal.

The true value of this music lies in an artist’s individual creativity and that unique process of expression which is Jazz.

I don’t have a definition of Jazz. You’re just supposed to know it when you hear it.

Jazz has an aesthetic intimacy, a romantic transference.

He almost adds a Chet-like sound to it.

They’re singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

I don’t know where Jazz is going. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it’s a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don’t listen.

[on Ornette Coleman] Man, that cat is nuts!

Play what you feel, feel what you play.

I write about moments, and I don’t make blanket statements about anything because no one has all the answers; nobody’s come up with a foolproof way to do anything when it comes to emotions.

I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, ‘Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.

I’m now a legend, whether I want to be or not.

If the bass plays the root, a pianist superimposes a Maj7 built on the 5th and the sax plays the 13th, will hot women notice?

What I can say is that for may years jazz musicians had to go to Europe, for instance, to be respected and to be sort of treated not in a discriminatory way. I don’t think there is anything controversial about me saying that. This is just a fact. …. Europeans really provided many venues over there and hailed the jazz artists, and a lot of musicians went over there and stayed over there for a long time. A lot of them moved over there, lived over there, and died over there.

As a little kid, blues meant hope, excitement, pure emotion. Blues were about feelings. They seem to bring out the feelings of the artist and they brought out my feelings as a kid. They made me wanna move, or sing, or pick up Reverend’s guitar and figure out how to make those wonderful sounds.