Thelonious Monk

Play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing even if it does take them 15, 20 years.

I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself.

I don’t have a definition of Jazz. You’re just supposed to know it when you hear it.

I say, ‘Play your own way. Don’t play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you’re doing – even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years’.

I find my inspiration in myself.

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

If you must listen to bad music, please use headphones.

I worked until I could play and do changes at any tempo in any key and said ‘What else is there?’ Now I’m finding out.

If one were asked to name one musician who came closest to composing without human flaw, I suppose general consensus would choose Johann Sebastian Bach.

We made records to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records. I still feel that way. I put out a record because I think it’s beautiful, not necessarily commercial.

Many people forget that Jazz, no matter what form it takes, must come from the heart as well as the mind.

Improvising musicians are musical travelers, voyagers. There is a freedom to wander the musical landscape.

You can’t rehearse a blues darlin’.

Play for the spiritual aspect, the emotion.

If you’re gonna sing meaningful songs, you have to be committed to living a life that backs that up.

Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.

If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!

I let my body play what’s in my heart. I play life instead of notes. I play what I lived.

And if I had a preference, it would be to be able to not be in the studio until 4 in the morning.

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

I came from an era when we didn’t use electronic instruments. The bass wasn’t even amplified. The sound was the sound you got.