Tito Puente

My role as a drummer is as a team player to enhance what is going on around me.

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

I’ve never recorded anything I didn’t like.

In my opinion, I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.

Keep searching for that sound you hear in your head until it becomes a reality.

I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn’t only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around.

When you’re creating your own shit, even the sky ain’t the limit.

My chops were not as fast… [but] I just learned more on what was in my mind than what was in my chops. I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it’s the right one, and it will probably whip the guy with twenty notes.

If I’m not a jazz player all the time, I’ve at least been cued in to what I do by jazz.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good – he’s rock’s #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us.

If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!

In this era it’s harder for musicians to get together, … Back in the ’80s, we were all at the clubs, you ran into people all the time. Now, everybody’s kind of in their own room with their computers. I use making an album as an opportunity to connect with musicians.

What we play is life.

The true musician is to bring light into people’s hearts.