Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I've never really been interested in doing a solo piano tour.
The hippest thing you can do is not play at all. Just listen.
I haven't stopped and I don't plan on stoppin' any time soon.
I don't think of myself as a jazz musician but a medicine man.
I don't feel deprived in not completing my artistic endeavors.
Doesn't that fool know I recorded that song because I like it?
I don't think any artist really knows why a song gets popular.
Wisdom is the key to understanding the age, creating the time.
I'd just as soon be on a good Steinway or Yamaha just as well.
I think it was a natural step to start recording my own music.
Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose.
Intellect has to surrender to instinct when it is time to play.
You have to practice improvisation, let no one kid you about it!
I try to imitate on the piano the leaps in space a dancer makes.
I guess chemistry always changes when you play with someone else.
I'm always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.
If you work on your talent, the plans will fall in automatically.
The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.
Don't be a perfectionist... leave that to the classical musicians.
Love songs last because they are about feelings that don't change.
You can't make jazz without using certain elements of Latin music.
All the classic jazz players all sang and a lot of 'em sang blues.
In a world of travail and cheap wine the ridiculous becomes sublime
We can all be ourselves, be true to ourselves, and all be together.
We are eternally linked not just to each other but our environment.
I try to play what comes naturally at the moment and let it happen.
If America has a future, Jazz has a future. The two are inseparable.
Music is the tool to express life - and all that makes a difference.
I am not fundamentally a musician, I am fundamentally a human being.
I try not to look back too much, but sometimes it's nice to reflect.
Jazz comes from anywhere the human being has a soul and has a heart.
Talking about the body getting old, there's a sadness to it in a way.
To get the music the way you want it, there's a lot of work involved.
It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.
I just express myself in any way I feel is appropriate at the moment.
I never sit down and write. I just sorta let things form in my brain.
Fats - very funny man, but every note that he played was like a pearl.
Kinship doesn't come from skin color. It's in your soul and your mind.
The value of music is not dazzling yourself and others with technique.
One should leave the piano when Oscar comes in. This man is dangerous.
Everybody cryin' mercy / When they don't know the meaning of the word.
I work very hard at being the best musician I can be because I love it.
There's only one free person in this society, and he is white and male.
You make different colors by combining those colors that already exist.
All you have to do is play one note. But it needs to be the right note.
I look for what's of value and extract that. I don't look to criticize.
Oscar Peterson is the greatest living influence on jazz pianists today.
The key of D is daffodil yellow, B major is maroon, and B flat is blue.
It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo.
I decided that I didn't want to spend my time in a liberal arts college.