As a jazz musician, you have individual power to create the sound. You also have a responsibility to function in the context of other people who have that power also.
I'm on my feet and I'm doing what I love to do, and I'm in a profession, as a musician, where we can go on for as long as we can go on.
My father taught me to read music and play the piano-but not well, even though people have said that I'm a natural musician.
I'm quite arty. I didn't know whether to become an artist or musician but I realised I could paint with music. All my songs have colours.
I don't go around, the way many musicians do, with earbuds in my ear listening to my iPod all day and just sticking my head in the music all the time.
I know too many musicians that have to tour on the same 10 songs, and they burn out. They get back to their house, and they have no reason to write new music. They are music'd out.
Music companies and buyers are not too encouraging towards independent musicians. Everyone wants to play safe and go with established names, but unless one breaks this routine, no new talent will come and survive.
I sometimes listen to music to get into some place that I need to get. I don't think it's because I have a musician as a father that I do this - most actors do.
Put you energy into music. If it fails you, you can become an accountant or a dentist. And then if you become a dentist or an accountant, it's too late to become a musician afterwards.
If a professional musician in a symphony orchestra is playing Beethoven. But this particular orchestra have played this particular chestnut so many times, they can play it in their sleep. Does the genius remain present in the music or not?
I play music a lot but on my own mostly, so it was nice to be around other people. There was a certain sense a relief in the physical act of just playing and being with other musicians.
It's nearly redundant to enumerate the reasons The Beatles are important. There are probably different reasons why The Beatles are important to a musician like myself and to the millions of Beatles fans who just enjoy listening to the music.
My job is essentially that of an entertainer, no different to that of a musician, no different to that of an actor. I just happen to be an author.
I'm not really one of those people who believes that if you're a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics.
Today a record producer is even more involved and is often the production's sole musician, one person playing all the instruments one-by-one.
Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves more than anyone listening to them does.
American musicians are very giving - they have the highest standard in the world - but they are also very demanding in their conditions.
The fact I had my father as an adversary was such a powerful tool to work with. I subconsciously fought him to the degree that I drove me to be one of the most successful musician in the world.
Growing up, I fantasized about being a rock musician and that somehow it would be really easy. I didn't realize that it's so much work.
Waiting to be discovered, hoping to be seen, wishing someone else would do the work, wanting to make it big while dreaming of being rich and famous just like your heroes is submissive, passive, foolish, weak, and ineffective. Take your desire for you...
If music serves to convey feelings through the interaction of physical gestures and sound, the musician needs his brain state to match the emotional state he is trying to express. Although the studies haven't been performed yet, I'm willing to bet th...
