Count Basie

I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch.

All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel ... and that's what I've been doing all my life.

If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!

I'll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I'd never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I'd never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn't much like it at first.

I'm saying: to be continued, until we meet again. Meanwhile, keep on listening and tapping your feet.

I never thought innovation as such was very important. Not when you have to think about it... If you're going to come up with a new direction or a really new way to do something, you'll do it by just playing your stuff and letting it ride. The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune.

I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter.

I got everything I wanted. When I was young in Kansas City, I knew nothing about Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, of all those concert halls, of all those countries. I did not know what it was like to direct a band... All I wanted was to be big, to be in show-business, and to travel...and that's what I've been doing all my life.