Chuck Israels

Nothing is so well-prepared as a great spontaneous performance.

I never set out to find a style of my own, it just happened.

I don’t care much about music. What I like is sounds.

In Jazz, improvisation isn’t a matter of just making any ol’ thing up. Jazz, like any language, has its own grammer and vocabulary. There’s no right or wrong, just some choices that are better than others.

The spirit of Jazz is the spirit of openness.

People who like Jazz feel the depth and soul and intelligence that the music expresses.

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

No one remembers who wrote the tune, putting pen to paper in some lonely place. They remember who had the hit.

It’s easy in music to tell what’s good. It’s hard to tell what’s bad.

Music is the most interesting thing in the world.

I was walking down the street, and I saw a sewer digger on his lunch hour open his lunch pail, dig out a harmonica, knock out the cracker crumbs, and play a bunch of tunes on it. I was fascinated by that harmonica, so I stared the guy out of it. I just stared at him. He said, ‘Here, kid, take it. Get out of here.’

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

When you are studying Jazz best thing to do is listen to records and live music as much you can and absorb everything.

Damn it, when I’m bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic: take it or leave it.

It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of Jazz and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902.

Miles told me not to use vibrato because when you get old, you’re going to shake anyway.