Roy Hargrove

Let the music speak for itself.

I always think of music as interior decoration. So, if you have all kinds of music, you are fully decorated!

Jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

A great symphony is a man-made Mississippi down which we irresistibly flow from the instant of our leave-taking to a long forseen destination.

It takes an intelligent ear to listen to Jazz.

All I play is truth and emotion.

If I were to call it black music, that would be untrue. I don’t know what that is, unless it would be some African drums or something.

I’m… a rather simple person with a limited talent and perhaps a limited perspective.

How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it.

What we play is life.

The blues tells a story in itself. It can make you happy or give you a feeling to swing.

For me, music and life are all about style

I used to play – when I first started trying to be professional, I disk jockey from 1949 to 1955 in Memphis, Tennessee, and I was quite popular there as a disk jockey.

My audience was my life. What I did and how I did it was all for my audience.

You must own it to play it.

Music can’t save the world, but can make one a little calmer.