Sonny Rollins

Even if you have some brilliant jazz ideas, it’s going to be difficult to get them across unless you have 1-a distinctive sound or 2- a loud sound. These are musts.

My improvisations are a beguiling mixture of the vertical and the horizontal.

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music.

I’m fortunate that I’m making a living at it now because I’m not equipped to do anything else.

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.

While many attempts have been made to define Jazz, what’s the point really. Jazz is to be experienced – period.

Anyone who doesn’t give [his debut album, The College Dropout] a perfect score is lowering the integrity of the magazine

First I was working on classical music that didn’t move me at all. I hated it. So I decided to discover the kinds of classical music that did move me—like Chopin, Satie, Beethoven, and certain Mozart songs. Mozart would play a counterpart with his left hand while using his right to mock it. It was blue, dark, shadowy and it made me feel something. That’s when I realized music was inside me.

Regardless of what you play, the biggest thing is keeping the feel going.

When you just get mixed up and there’s too much going on, then it’s time to pick up your guitar.

I don’t think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.

I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I’ve never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I’ve wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn’t work.

I loved the feeling that I got singing.

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

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

I think I was supposed to play Jazz.

As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction.

Jazz isn’t the kind of music you’re going to learn in 3 or 4 years or get because you have talent for music.