Jane Monheit

Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.

Music always turns into music. As soon as I play a key, push a key down, there’s no theory any more. When I go and I hear a sound on the keyboard, all theories go out the window.

I’m trying to get people to see that we are our brother’s keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues.

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

A drummer has to be kind-hearted.

What a fool I am to think my breaking heart could kid the moon.

Bird said he worked as dishwasher at Onyx Club on 52nd St. in the early 1940s just to hear Art Tatum play.

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it… for two days, the critics know it… three days, the public knows it.

In order to complete your cycle, a musician needs to write; document what is going through your mind and where you are harmonically, theoretically, historically.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music. That was his reason for being alive. Nothing else mattered except music, really.

In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that no one else has thought of.

Jazz is a beautiful word. I love it.

If you don’t know what it is, don’t mess with it.

It doesn’t have to be happy music to be inspiring.