The Best I Can Do Is Stay

You Can't Take It For Granted. Even If We Have Two, Three Days Off I Still Have To Blow That Horn A Few Hours To Keep Up The Chops. I Mean I've Been Playing 50 Years, And That's What I've Been Doing In Order To Keep In That Groove There.

If You Don't Understand It, Don't Mess With It.

If I Don’t Practice For A Day, I Know It. If I Don’t Practice For Two Days, The Critics Know It. And If I Don’t Practice For Three Days, The Public Knows It.

When You're Dead, You're Done.

A Lot Of The Musicians Asked Me If When I Hit My High-cs On The Records I Had A Clarinet Take The Notes. Some [thought] I Had Invented Some Kind Of Gadget So I Could Play High Register. They Weren't Satisfied Until They Handed Me A Trumpet That They Had With Them And Had Me Swing It. Then They Cheered.