Pat Metheny

It is Jazz’s very nature to change, to develop and adapt to the circumstances of its environment.

Listening is the key to everything good in music.

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

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history.

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a Jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

Jazz music will continue to thrive, possibly in unexpected ways.

I never believed in a set routine. It should depend on how you feel, because you play what you feel.

If a jazz player is really playing, the classical player will have to respect him.

There are times when you want to go where you used to go and you can’t go there. So I’m back to Count Basie lifting his hand. And I find you can stop that show with one note just like you can with a hundred.

When you make a sound, it carries on to infinity. Sound is a vibration. Vibration is energy. All of that survives in space long after we’re dead. When I walk on stage at the Wiener Staatsoper, I can feel the footsteps of Chopin and Rachmaninov.

I am very aware that so little has happened to the electric guitar from the time that it was conceived to now; where there are so little changes made where there should be drastic changes made. If we were to put our heads together and start thinking about modern technology we would be much more advantaged with the electric guitar than we are. I think that we’ve been stagnant for many years.

In this era it’s harder for musicians to get together, … Back in the ’80s, we were all at the clubs, you ran into people all the time. Now, everybody’s kind of in their own room with their computers. I use making an album as an opportunity to connect with musicians.

It’s about getting the sound to flow from your body and allowing that sound to get to the piano.

For me, the main thing is spontaneity and taking chances.

I hear beauty and elegance combined with passion and fire.

Never lose the groove to find a note.

As long as I can say what it is that I need to say, then I’ll fit whatever I’m trying to say around a melody.

I’ve sung a lot of emotional songs, but when you’re writing it’s very difficult to decide what to reveal.

I was always exposed to music. Mom and dad would have the radio on constantly.

A Jazz Diet will make you hipper, thinner, taller, smarter, richer, happier and more attractive to members of both sexes.

I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That’s when I was born.