Roy Hargrove

Let the music speak for itself.

We quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker’s next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now?

Creativity shouldn’t be following radio; it should be the other way around.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

I want to create music that’s therapeutic.

If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.

Music allows the great opportunity to play with people you love.

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

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

In classical music, only two people are important, the composer and the conductor. Everybody else is a serf. In jazz, a thing of beauty is created collectively with everybody getting to express an idea. And that reflects what democratic society is – or should be.

If you can’t play the Blues you might as well hang it up.

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

I can’t listen to music too often. It affects your nerves, makes you want to say stupid nice things and stroke the heads of people who could create such beauty while living in this vile hell.

Apparently Jazz is now considered high art and the average person has trouble understanding it.

Audiences are smart. They are not going to come out to see you unless you are honest.