"I think music needs to be of its time & speak to that time. I think that what is important is that the music be honest & direct & that…

"Most jazz players work out their solos to the extent that they have a very specific vocabulary." Lee Konitz - American alto saxophonist who improvises long, melodic lines with…

“Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers” — Max Roach an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer. A pioneer of bebop, and considered…

"Jazz is an art form that depends on its antecedents. There must be respect for the people that have gone before." - Jon Hendricks, an American jazz lyricist and…

“The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities.” Pat Metheny, an American jazz guitarist, composer & leader of the Pat…

"I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know." Billie Holiday "Lady Day,” American jazz singer…

"I like minor tunes. Mary Lou Williams used to tell me: if you're not feeling right, play a minor tune & it falls into place." - Marian McPartland, jazz…

“It’s the group sound that’s important, even when you’re playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back…

“It's important to help people understand how valuable and important Jazz is; to make them understand that this music is theirs, that it's a part of them . . .”…

"Jazz is a beautiful word. I love it." - Dexter Gordon, an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He was among the earliest tenor players to adapt the bebop musical language…

"What we play is life." - Louis Armstrong, an American jazz trumpeter and singer who came to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" trumpet and cornet player; a…