Play What You Know And Then Play

Sometimes [playing Free] Doesn't Happen, Because Maybe A Guy's Wife'll Come In, You Know, And His Ego Will Catch Him. If Everybody's Completely Just Straight-without Any Old Ladies Over Here, A Fourth Of Whisky Over There; If It's Balanced Right, It'll Come Off. It Has To Be. But When You Get Egos Involved With Playing Free, You Can't Do It.

The Music Has Gotten Thick. Guys Give Me Tunes And They're Full Of Chords. I Can't Play Them...i Think A Movement In Jazz Is Beginning Away From The Conventional String Of Chords, And A Return To Emphasis On Melodic Rather Than Harmonic Variation. There Will Be Fewer Chords But Infinite Possibilities As To What To Do With Them.

I Don't Like To Hear Someone Put Down Dixieland. Those People Who Say There's No Music But Bop Are Just Stupid; It Shows How Much They Don't Know.

I Ain't No Entertainer, And Ain't Trying To Be One. I Am One Thing, A Musician.

I Began To Realize That Some Of The Things Ornette Coleman Had Said About Things Being Played Three Or Fours Ways, Independently Of Each Other, Were True Because Bach Had Also Composed That Way.