Brian Lynch

I hate to think of Jazz as black and white, something political.

By giving the public a rich and full melody, distinctly arranged and well played, all the time creating new tone colors and patterns, I feel we have a better chance of being successful. I want a kick to my band, but I don’t want the rhythm to hog the spotlight.

Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn’t have.

Jazz means many things to many people, but it’s all about choices.

What we play is life.

There is a time where you’re beyond yourself, better than your technique, better than your usual ideas.

I really feel like I made it a great record. I really feel good about it. In this day and age to make a record that you say, ‘This is different,’ that’s a tough nut. I did it by accident but it got done. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know how to do it.

I thought I had swell ideas and wonderful musicians but no one else did.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

When I got started in New York, if you were different from Miles and Dizzy it was very difficult.

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

Musicianship is using your two ears.

My role in society, or any artist or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

Jazz is a living music; since its beginning has expressed the feelings, dreams and hopes of the people.

It bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s feeling.