When you have 13 horns, and one is soloing, you have 12 people to play the richest, fullest chord you could ever imagine behind that solo.

- Carla Bley

When Ronald Reagan was elected I was on a bus traveling with a band in France. I wrote a little arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner in a minor ke…

- Carla Bley

What's interesting about a person without problems?

- Carla Bley

I just got to hear every note. After I left Birdland, I started working at the Jazz Gallery. In the end, I still couldn't play, but I knew how to lis…

- Carla Bley

Listening is more important than anything else because that's what music is. Somebody is playing something and you're receiving it. It is sending and…

- Carla Bley

It would be really hard to get serious about anything political today unless it was a joke.

- Carla Bley

Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker seemed so sophisticated and bad. I wanted to be like that.

- Carla Bley

There are times when what's happening in rock is the best music in the world, and there are times when there is nothing worthwhile at all.

- Carla Bley

I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

- Carla Bley