J J Johnson

Jazz is restless. It won’t stay put and it never will.

Today Jazz music is performed and listened to by people of all ethnicity, backgrounds, ages and creeds.

Whenever I fill out the job description I put ‘songwriter’, never ‘singer’ or ‘artist.’ Singers come and go.

Life is not about finding our limitations, it’s about finding our infinity.

Jazz music has always made powerful statements about freedom, creativity and personal identity.

A band ought to have a sound all of its own. It ought to have a personality.

..I wanted to create music that was so different that my mother could tell me from anyone else.

[on Ornette Coleman] Man, that cat is nuts!

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

Anything I do has to be directly related to my music. If it isn’t, I don’t really see a point to it.

You know the actor John Garfield? In one movie he walked up to this train station, the ticket booth, and the guy says, ‘Yes, where are you going?’ And he says, ‘I want a ticket to nowhere.’ I thought: that’s it. The freedom to do that. I want a ticket to nowhere.

No, working is what will keep you alive.

As a young cellist I had played to an audience that had included Pablo Casals and reacted with poor, nervous playing. Casals sought me out after the concert and praised me highly, somewhat easing the pain and thinking him a very kind man.

I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.

I don’t really live like a musician myself. I think music is just something that I do, but I’d like to be doing lots of other things. I like to cure all kinds of illness.

Jazz standards are our contribution to music history.