Wynton Marsalis

Find the best teachers, listen to the finest playing and try to emulate that. Be true to the music.

Music does not come to you. You have to come to it and you’ll walk away with something you didn’t have before.

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.

Don’t settle for style. Succeed in substance.

A beat is a moment in the life a groove.

Don’t bullshit, just play.

[In 1972] At the moment, we’re getting the same thrill from seeing the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Jo Jo Gunne, and Judee Sill happen… It’s as hard to do it with Jackson Browne as it was to do it with Joni five years ago.

Life is a lot like jazz. It’s best when you improvise.

Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression.

The jazziest American contribution to the vocabulary of English is Jazz itself.

I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat.

In Kansas City joints ran 9pm-5am. Pay was a $1.25 a night but somebody special like Count Basie could command $1.50.

Musicians should never forget we’re blessed. We have a special gift that people enjoy through us.

Everybody ought to have a lower East Side in their life.

I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces, as opposed to what I see it being now, which is a way for me to actually communicate, and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.

There’s a lot of recreational Jazz going on, where cats learn a particular style and become sharks on somebody else’s language.

We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about, but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.

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

My wife Martha used to call me Ol’ Lemon Face because of my facial contortions when I play Lucille. I squeeze my eyes and open my mouth, raise my eyebrows, cock my head and God knows what else. I look like I’m in torture, when in truth, I’m in ecstasy. I don’t do it for show. Every fiber of my being is tingling.

Of course there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.