Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

My father's rich, my momma's good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I've never suffered and don't intend to suffer.

For me, music and life are all about style.

I think the greatest sound in the world is the human voice.

In improvisation, there are no mistakes.

Always look ahead, but never look back.

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

My ego only needs a good rhythm section

The way you change and help music is by tryin' to invent new ways to play

You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.

At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington.

I'll play it first and figure out what it's called later.

People will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype.

Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.

We don't play to be seen. I'm addicted to music, not audiences.

To keep creating you have to be about change.

Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.