Gregor Piatigorsky

My Strat is another arm, it’s part of me. It doesn’t feel like a guitar at all. It’s an implement which is my voice.

And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.

We may not be changing the world dramatically, but we’re improving it one note at a time.

But the guitar, my lady, whether well played or badly played, well strung or badly strung, is pleasant to hear and listen to; being so easy to learn, it attracts the busiest of talented people and makes them put aside loftier occupations so that they may hold a guitar in their hands.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness.

I didn’t get my music together until I was 40.

Man, you tell a story.

The thing I always default to is that I’ll always be here to write songs.

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

Jazz standards are our contribution to music history.

The melody is generally what the piece is all about.

To keep a band together you simply need a gimmick. The gimmick I use is to pay them money.

The true value of this music lies in an artist’s individual creativity and that unique process of expression which is Jazz.

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.