Artie Shaw

Shoot for the moon. If you miss you’ll still end up in the stars.

There’s such a cynicism about the phrase ‘I laughed all the way to the bank.’ It’s as though money is what you’re doing, rather than playing music. If you’re playing a money game, why not get into banking?

I was really running a music school back then, because my band wasn’t making any money. I keep talking about money, because most people don’t understand the part of money in running a band.

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijuana, and will expire on cocaine.

I like the music. I love it and live it in fact, but for me the business part just plain stinks.

An artist should write for himself and not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.

Those who wish to sing, always find a song.

As far back as I can remember, singing was in my blood. My parents loved music, and I loved to sing. I was scatting at an early age.

I had an affinity for music and could play anything I heard on the piano, but I wasn’t scholastically advanced in any way. It was more of a habitual tendency. I would work on weekends at piano bars playing jazz when I was an art student, but the music wasn’t mine – it was covers: everything from Radiohead to really old jazz. But other than that, the only training I had was piano lessons from when I was nine until I was eleven.

I want to create music that’s therapeutic.

I started as a writer and when I sent my demos out everyone wanted to know who was singing and if that person wanted a record deal.

Three months. I was playing the organ for three months. It was a challenge for me in the beginning.

Musicians tell me, if what I’m doing is right, they should never have gone to school.

I haven’t a great Jazz band and I don’t want one.

Jazz has the ability to absorb and transform influences from diverse musical styles.

A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music.

If you can’t get your songs to people one way, you have to find another.

Unless I really loved it and felt really passionate about it, I would just kind of abort the song and start a new one.

Jazz is about being in the moment.

In order to complete your cycle, a musician needs to write; document what is going through your mind and where you are harmonically, theoretically, historically.

I love it when people hear my music but can’t figure out what instrument I’m playing.