Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
A bad song, the three best singers in the world cannot save it, and that's the bottom line.
Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important.
I never cared about money or fame, and I don't care now. I follow the groove, and money always follows.
I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain't that the truth."
China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.
Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind.
It's the attitude about life, man. Looking at the light instead of the dark. Looking at love instead of fear.
We spent most of our life almost like street rats just running around the street until we were ten years old.
Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.
Did you know you would become as successful as you have? Hell, no. But you know what? You were prepared, baby.
A person's age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.
I found this out over the years, that racism is a thinly veiled disguise over economics and money. It really is.
Count Basie practically adopted me at 13. We became closer and closer and I ended up conducting for him and Sinatra.
You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God.
Unfortunately, America doesn't have a minister of culture, and I don't understand why. It's really bad for young people.
I improvised my life along the way - I just moved step-by-step. And I knew that if I got better, something would happen.
I learned real early why God gave us two ears and one mouth, because you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk.
I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.
Every day you must be able to say, I have to get up because I'm needed by someone. As long as you have that, you're healthy.
Whenever a woman would come too close, I would cut her off. Part of that was vindictive - but that was totally subconscious.
I have all the tools and gadgets. I tell my son, who's a producer, 'You never work for the machine; the machine works for you.'
Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old shared a little of what he is good at doing.
The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.
I look back and say, "This must have been somebody else." I am not going to tell you that when I was 4, I dreamed about all of this.
A great song can make a terrible singer sound good, but a good singer - you put a great song on top of that, you're really in great shape!
Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores.
I think the attraction of 'American Idol' is about the basic human nature attitude that is, 'We can put you up there. But we can take you down.'
Few rappers realize the genre sprang from West African griots through Delta slave songs to jazz poetry and the comedic trash talk of 'the dozens.'
Michael (Jackson) was so shy, he'd sit down and sing behind the couch with his back to me while I sat with my hands over my eyes-and the lights off.
I don't deserve a Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. But fifteen years ago, I had a brain operation and I didn't deserve that, either. So I'll keep it.
When you produce an album, you're dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that is that the ear loves it.
Hell, nobody knows where jazz is going to go. There may be a kid right now in Chitlin Switch, Georgia, who is going to come along and upset everybody.
I chose the trombone because the trombone players in the marching band got to be up front with the majorettes (because of the slides) and I loved that!
What happens when you get a big break and you haven't prepared yourself? That becomes the biggest mistake you've ever made. I see it happen all the time.
Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.'
I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything.
I got to trumpet, finally. That's why I love to write for brass, and [Count] Basie and [Frank] Sinatra and all that stuff, 'cause that's just like part of my DNA.
My brother died of cancer two years ago (1998), renal cell carcinoma. He was my only real brother and I didn't know what to do. I'd never been so desperate in my life.
Seattle is like a global gumbo, a melting pot with all kinds of people - the rich, the poor, white people, some Chinese, Filipino, Jewish and black people - they're all here.
I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home.
The relationship with a producer and an artist is really special. It's got to be love and respect, amazing mutual respect for each other, because that's what makes a good record.
When you work with Ray Charles, Billy Eckstine and Frank Sinatra, and you tell them to jump without a net, you better know what you're talking about. Thank God I was ready for it.
We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I never wanted to see honey again.
When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had to figure a lot of things out.
I was raised in Chicago and I guess that was one of the special breeding grounds for gangsters of all colors. That was the Detroit of the gangster world. The car industry was thugs.
A lot of the guys were like that - Oscar Pettiford - they just took me under their wing, and that's why I automatically help young people. I just love it, because they did that for me.
After I learned the piano, I went on to learn percussion, the tuba, b-flat baritone, French horn, trombone, trumpet, most of the instruments in the orchestra. Trumpet was my instrument.
Cherish your mistakes, and you won't keep making them over and over again. It's the same with heartbreaks and girls and everything else. Cherish them, and they'll put some wealth in you.
If you started in New York you were dealing with the biggest guys in the world. You're dealing with Charlie Parker and all the big bands and everything. We got more experience working in Seattle.
It was messed up, because in 1947 my family moved to Seattle and I had to get up at 5:00 o'clock in the morning to catch the ferry back to Bremerton every morning because I was Boys Club president.