Chuck Israels

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

I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.

If you already have a piece of music ingrained in your body, why would you not play it?

The problem is that a lot of the blues stations are late on Saturday night, and like a lot of people, I ain’t no vampire!

Sound is the first thing that we tune into.

You can’t rehearse a blues darlin’.

You can’t go to the store and buy a good ear and rhythm.

One of the problems of people who live with pain is that they spend the whole day thinking about it, and it’s exasperating. But even when I am having a bad moment and I can’t get myself together, I get on stage and for an hour or two the pain becomes super-small. It’s about controlling the mind, telling the pain to step aside. Music does that. It’s the most fantastic drug in the world.

You could go out and eat and come back and the note would still be playing.

People will always need love, romance, a tender touch and really personal and deeply felt music.

I can’t understand these guys who just have to have your autograph. I asked one of them ‘What do you do when you get home, take it out and look at it?’

I’m a big fan of music, a student. I just wanna learn and keep enhancing my education about Jazz.

Risk is at the heart of Jazz. Every note we play is a risk.

There is nothing more stuntastic than rapping in front of an orchestra.

Jazz is a beautiful woman whose older brother is a policeman.

Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I’m trying to do more. When I’m singing, I don’t want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling.