If You Don't Know What To Play,

Anybody Can Play. The Note Is Only 20 Percent. The Attitude Of The Motherfucker Who Plays It Is 80 Percent.

Bebop Didn't Have The Humanity Of Duke Ellington. It Didn't Even Have That Recognizable Thing. Bird And Diz Were Great, Fantastic, Challenging — But They Weren't Sweet.

If You Understood Everything I Say, You'd Be Me!

I Used To Enjoy All The White Bands When I Was A Kid Listening To The Radio. But The Record Companies, They Take Music And Label It - Like, They Say "rock". Because The White Singers Can't Sound Like James Brown, They Call Him "soul". They've Been Doing That For Years. That's The Prejudice Crap.

See, If You Put A Musician In A Place Where He Has To Do Something Different From What He Does All The Time, Then He Can Do That - But He's Got To Think Differently In Order To Do It. He's Got To Play Above What He Knows - Far Above It. I've Always Told The Musicians In My Band To Play What They Know And Then Play Above That. Because Then Anything Can Happen, And That's Where Great Art And Music Happens.