Charlie Parker

It’s not all smoke and mirrors. Some of it comes from books.

Master your instrument, master the music and then forget all that and just play.

They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

Music is your own experience, your 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.

The time is now.

I kept thinking there’s bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn’t play it.

My fans are the best in the world! They’ve grown up with me and stayed with me through this entire journey.

I want the music to connect to people; reach people every time I perform.

When the music changes, so does the dance.

When I got pretty good I went on the road with a group. We starved.

But I have always suspected that one could substitute the Minuet of Haydn’s 98th symphony for the Minuet in Haydn’s 99th symphony without sensing a serious lack of coherence in either work.

It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.

I don’t like recording studios – except my own, which is just a little room above the garage.

Jazz came to America three hundred years ago in chains.

It’s like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn sentences, which are the chords. And then you talk extemporaneously with the horn. It’s a wonderful thing to speak extemporaneously, which is something I’ve never gotten the hang of. But musically I love to talk just off the top of my head. And that’s what jazz music is all about.

If you have something in your life worth celebrating, you can put it in a blues song.

I think I’ve tried to stay true to my music since the beginning. It’s kind of hard because of the access and technology but I just do what I do.

Practice as if you are the worst, play as if you are the best!

I’m very shy, and I shy away from people. But the moment I hit the stage, it’s a different feeling I get nerve from somewhere; maybe it’s because it’s something I love to do.

When Hank Jones had his night off, I would get somebody to take my place as intermission pianist and I’d play the show with Ella, so I would get a chance to play with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as well.

I don’t care about the rules, if I don’t break the rules at least 10x every song then I’m not doing my job.