Thelonious Monk

After two takes you’re imitating yourself.

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.

If jazz has to be termed as a wave, then music is a sea, but if the reflectors in the water is the chord.

[on Ornette Coleman] Man, that cat is nuts!

All musicians stimulate each other. The vibrations get scattered around.

If my own work had more importance than any others, it’s because the piano is the key instrument in music.

Damn it, when I’m bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic: take it or leave it.

I am a writer – that is what I am before being a performer or musician. I love waking up in the morning and then going to sleep that night with something that did not exist.

Difference between sex and love? Well, you’re not always sure you’re in love. But when you’re having sex, there’s really no mistaking it.

I’m always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.

I want to keep redefining my work and trying new things. I want my music to be able to fit into any category. I want it to float wherever my heart goes. My music is heart music; giving it any other description is dangerous.

We all played bad before we played good.

Music doesn’t have to hop to be hip, as long as it swings it sings.

Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music. Surprisingly enough, everyone doesn’t.

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

Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write to ultimately be at peace with himself.

I have a sense of the importance of music and how powerful it is to bring people together.

There’s always this sound out there that’s just a little beyond my reach and that just sort of keeps me going.

I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

There’s always room for improvisation or changes of expression.