--Louis Armstrong
--Miles Davis
--Duke Ellington
--Robert Schumann
--Thelonius Monk (to his bass player)
When the music business changed so drastically in the late sixties and rock began happening in such a big way, I went to Count Basie and said, "It's a complete takeover. What should I do?" Basie waited a beat, looked up at me with those big eyes of his, and said, "Why change an apple?"
--Tony Bennet
You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it.
--Duke Ellington
There are no wrong notes.
--Thelonius Monk
Music is your own experience--your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.
--Charlie Parker
Bop was based on a seventeen-note chromatic scale, which presented a problem as there are only twelve notes to an octave. They solved this problem by playing them very rapidly.
--Roger Price
And the greatest of all time:
Never look at the brass...it only encourages them.
--Richard Strauss