Benny Carter

The truth is I never gave it much thought. I just played what I had to play.

I had a really good time in New Orleans, although I had some very tragic times in Baton Rouge. Some guys beat me up and threw my horn away. ‘Cause I had a beard, then, and long hair like the Beatles.

Apparently Jazz is now considered high art and the average person has trouble understanding it.

The English pianist Alan Clare was once intrigued with a workman who was carrying out some remodeling inside his house. Clare was playing some recordings, and he began to notice that the workman was whistling along with whatever music he put on – Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, it didn’t seem to matter. Even if he hadn’t heard it before, he had the natural musical ability to follow a melody closely and almost automatically. Clare decided to give him a real test and dug up his recording of Art Tatum doing Tea For Two, with the ground-breaking chord changes Tatum introduced into the tune. The workman never lost a beat nor did he lay out for a bar or two to figure out what was going on. He tracked Tatum flawlessly through all his changes, and when the record ended, he spoke for the first time. He glanced at Clare and with classic English understatement said, ‘Tricky f**ker, ain’t he?’

I have no one style.

Practice 15 or 20 years and then it comes out spontaneously.

Ah music… a magic beyond all we do here!

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

Only play what you hear. If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.

Musicianship is using your two ears.

I could see the blues was about survival.

I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.

A series of vibrations. What does it matter, the source of the catalyst?

Those who wish to sing, always find a song.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.