I fell in love with jazz when I was 12 years old from listening to Duke Ellington and hearing a lot of jazz in New York on the radio.
- Steve Lacy
Love, Listening, New, Duke
I heard Sidney Bechet play a Duke Ellington piece and fell in love with the soprano saxophone.
- Steve Lacy
Love, Play, Saxophone, Duke
To me, there is spirit in a reed. It's a living thing, a weed, really, and it does contain spirit of a sort. It's really an ancient vibration.
- Steve Lacy
Living, Contain, Reed
Whoever has an original thing to say, it is sort of a threat to the status quo.
- Steve Lacy
Original, Say, Whoever, Status Quo
I've performed solo for 20 years now, but I don't do much of it, because if you only play alone, you go crazy and out of tune and play foolish music.
- Steve Lacy
Play, Go, Solo, Foolish
Bamboo is not a weed, it's a flowering plant. Bamboo is a magnificent plant.
- Steve Lacy
Plant, Bamboo, Magnificent, Weed
There is an awful lot of what I call recreational jazz going on, where people go out and learn a particular language or style and become real sharks on somebody else's language.
- Steve Lacy
Learn, Going, Awful Lot, Recreational
You must have the music to justify an instrument's extensive use.
- Steve Lacy
Music, Use, Justify, Extensive
What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged.
- Steve Lacy
How, Getting, Temptations, Discouraged
Some people really want to play Mozart and be just performers. I was more interested in invention.
- Steve Lacy
Play, Some, Performers, Mozart
I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz.
- Steve Lacy
Music, New, Through, New Orleans
The soprano has all those other instruments in it. It's got the soprano song voice, flute, violin, clarinet, and tenor elements and can even approach the baritone in intensity.
- Steve Lacy
Voice, Song, Other, Flute
If you're trying to invent something new, you're going to reach a lot of discouraging points, and most people give up.
- Steve Lacy
New, Give, Going, Discouraging
Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it.
- Steve Lacy
New, Like, Everybody, Wine
If you listen to Louis Armstrong from 1929, you will never hear anything better than that really, and you will never hear anything more free than that.
- Steve Lacy
Will, More, Armstrong, Louis
I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed.
- Steve Lacy
Art, Think, I Think, Revealed
They call me before they go into production, when they have a prototype, and they call legitimate saxophonists, too. As opposed to the other kind.
- Steve Lacy
Other, Before, Opposed, Prototype
You have to sound sad first of all, then maybe later you can sound good.
- Steve Lacy
Sound, Maybe, Later, First Of All
I've always been extremely lucky in playing with great people who knew much more than I did. That's how I got from there to here.
- Steve Lacy
Lucky, Here, Always, Great People
I've been working on the soprano saxophone for 40 years, and the possibilities are astounding. It's up to you, the only limit is the imagination.
- Steve Lacy
Possibilities, Been, Soprano
Nobody was playing the soprano saxophone and certainly nobody was trying to do anything with it. So I was all alone. I didn't know that at first.
- Steve Lacy
Saxophone, Certainly, Soprano
The soprano turned out to sound to me like the right hand on the piano.
- Steve Lacy
Piano, Like, Turned, Soprano
It starts with a single sound. If there's something in that sound, then it's worth continuing.
- Steve Lacy
Single, Sound, Then, Continuing
Circumstances can be very important. Find the right people to work with.
- Steve Lacy
Important, Find, Very, Right People
When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now.
- Steve Lacy
Going, About, Awful Lot, Imitation
I wanted to be a pianist but it just wasn't my thing. I guess I wanted to stand up rather than sit down.
- Steve Lacy
Down, Rather, Wanted, Stand Up
It's very important to go through periods where you sound just rotten and you know it, and you have to persevere or give up.
- Steve Lacy
Through, Very, Persevere, Rotten
The more original something is, the more of a threat it seems until the people catch up with it. That happened with Thelonious Monk. It happened with anybody who is really original.
- Steve Lacy
Original, More, Anybody, Catch
The potential for the saxophone is unlimited.
- Steve Lacy
Saxophone, Unlimited, Potential
I was spoiled by Monk's music because it was so good, so complete.
- Steve Lacy
Music, Because, Spoiled, Complete
Play difficult and interesting things. If you play boring things, you risk losing your appetite. Saxophone can be tedious with too much of the same.
- Steve Lacy
Play, Interesting Things, Risk
When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly.
- Steve Lacy
Finally, Tunes, Perfectly, Horn
We played for peanuts. But we did what we wanted to do, we heard what we wanted to hear, we performed what we wanted to perform, we learned what we wanted to learn.
- Steve Lacy
Learn, Wanted, Learned, Performed
When I heard Monk in person in 1955, he was playing with a quartet in a small club. The place was full of musicians, but there was no public at all.
- Steve Lacy
Musicians, Small, Monk, Quartet
You can work on the saxophone alone, but ultimately you must perform with others.
- Steve Lacy
Work, Alone, Perform, Saxophone
Saxophone is one thing, and music is another.
- Steve Lacy
Music, Another, One Thing, Saxophone
The saxophone is a very interesting machine, but I'm more interested in music.
- Steve Lacy
Music, Machine, Very, Saxophone
When I first started playing music in 1955, there was just a small body of people that knew it. It was a very esoteric type of thing.
- Steve Lacy
Small, Knew, Very, Esoteric
I still love the whole history of jazz. The old things sound better than ever.
- Steve Lacy
Love, Jazz, Still, Old Things
Kenny G, I have to be grateful to him for proving that the instrument can be played all different kinds of ways.
- Steve Lacy
Grateful, Different Kinds, Proving
Register is very important. Music sounds best in a certain register.
- Steve Lacy
Music, Important, Very, Sounds
People don't want to suffer. They want to sound good immediately, and this is one of the biggest problems in the world.
- Steve Lacy
World, Suffer, Biggest, Immediately
Jazz is people's music, a collectivity.
- Steve Lacy
Music, People, Jazz
Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk.
- Steve Lacy
Play, Risk, Note, Jazz
Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work.
- Steve Lacy
Work, You, Before, Invent
Loading more quotes...
If you're searching for quotes on a different topic, feel free to browse our Topics page or explore a diverse collection of quotes from various Authors to find inspiration.