Jimmy McGriff

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

I’m going to make music out of whatever style it is, being true to the artform itself.

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.

Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.

In our local Baptist church, I sang in the choir and formed a gospel quartet. When our minister caught me messing with his guitar, he taught me three positions – one, four and five. After that, I taught myself to play.

Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.

External instruments are only extensions of the biological instrument.

Jazz is a spectacularly accurate model of democracy and a look into our redemptive future possibilities.

What I’m doing, I prefer to call that jazz, because it is a beautiful word – I love it.

I’m a fan first. I believed Duke Ellington when he said there’s no bad music, just some of it is presented badly. As a kid, hanging around Church Street, the presentation of music was so powerful, I couldn’t help but jump for joy. I had discovered art, or truth, or whatever you want to call it; I had seen a light I’d follow forever.

I feel like….Music is the – it’s the answer. It’s the reason.

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

However it goes, I’ll just keep playing. That’s where the basic satisfaction is at.

You explore beautiful songs and create your own interpretation of them.

Once you have been bitten by the Jazz bug, it is not a choice anymore.