Joe Venuti

I was a nerd academically. But I was also an athlete and a musician. I never wanted to be shut out of any situation. I think it was that more than anything.

When Bird came on the scene, it was shocking as in the Bible: everything was dark and then there was light.

Dog spelled backward is God. That’s pretty heavy.

If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.

Blues is to Jazz what yeast is to bread; without it, it’s flat.

People now have been conditioned to believe they should only buy one song at a time, that nobody can make an entire record that would merit you paying, you know, $7, $8, $10 when CDs in the ’90s were $18, $19 and people bought millions and millions and millions of them.

I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won’t come out.

Jazz will only go where we the composers and musicians take it. It is up to us.

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

Trios offer simple instrumentation, but the orchestral possibilities are so profound.

Miles told me not to use vibrato because when you get old, you’re going to shake anyway.

Jazz goes into my coffee in the morning, in my wine at night.

Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.

When I got pretty good I went on the road with a group. We starved.

A Les Paul feels like a guitar and I play differently on that and I sound too much like someone else.