Mike Stern

I want the music to connect to people; reach people every time I perform.

I want people to walk away with the same joy, hope and love that I put into my music.

The deeper you get into the music allows the ability to appreciate art and all other forms of expression.

If a song’s about something I’ve experienced or that could’ve happened to me it’s good. But if it’s alien to me, I couldn’t lend anything to it. Because that’s what soul is all about.

They said Bird played bebop, but Bird could still swing. I’ve heard a lot of guys play bebop, but they wasn’t swinging.

Eliminating the piano means that I’ve always worked closer with the bass than most players.

Once in a while, the thumb that fits over the neck of the guitar kinda bothers me a little bit, but not that much yet. I figure in time I won’t do much because of my age.

Women have not been socialized to play drums. It’s not natural for us to hit thing.

Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it’s a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don’t listen.

Wes Montgomery played impossible things on the guitar because it was never pointed out to him that they were impossible.

I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel.

I wanted something very dense, something that would sustain long and more pieces of wood that would be soft, sweet, for more of a mellow sound.

Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.

Your horn is your passport to the world.

It became a kind of a game, to remember the things that had happened five minutes ago. I would start making notes about the things I was doing, on an instrument that was foreign to me, the guitar, so it was just a fun way of doing cognitive therapy. I was none the wiser to it until I began to improve and my ability to speak began to come back.

If music is sound and came from silence, then silence is potentially greater than sound.

Everyone is working who should be.