Dave Brubeck

It’s like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.

No person in their right mind would want to put their family through what I’ve had to put my family through.

Jazz stands for freedom.

I prefer no one to teach me. I prefer to swing on my own.

I’m beginning to understand myself. But it would have been great to be able to understand myself when I was 20 rather than when I was 82.

Don’t be a perfectionist… leave that to the classical musicians.

I don’t have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapy is in art.

Listening is more important than anything because that’s what music is. Somebody is playing something and you’re receiving it.

Improvising musicians are musical travelers, voyagers. There is a freedom to wander the musical landscape.

I don’t believe music can be free unless it has something to be free from.

I am only a mixture of countless influences and thanks to that I am able to find my own style of playing.

It’s spontaneity that has always characterized Jazz music’s finest improvisers.

I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player and a special award in 1961 for quietness.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

I hope my recordings of my own works won’t inhibit other people’s performances. The brutal fact is that one doesn’t always get the exact tempo one wants, although one improves with experience.

I didn’t know the right names for anything at first, but I knew what knocked me out. Changes… man I dug.

If a player is pushing their ability, a certain amount of failure is inevitable. Maybe even desirable.

When it comes to music, don’t lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth.

I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

I still love the whole history of Jazz. The old things sound better than ever.

Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens.