Sonny Rollins Quotes

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

Ultimately, at the end of it, it's just trying to get into that space where you feel like you're hitting the right thing and you're making music. And it feels intuitive rather than being counterintuitive.

Music always turns into music. As soon as I play a key, push a key down, there's no theory any more. When I go and I hear a sound on the keyboard, all theories go out the window.

Jazz is something that you have to feel. It's something that you have to live.

Jazz is neither specific repertoire, nor academic exercise... but a way of life.

We are aware that the conductor is not really making the music, it is making him -- if he is relaxed, open and attuned, then the invisible will take possession of him; through him, it will reach us.

What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

When I perform, I like to immerse myself in the music, and I just try to get off on the diversity of music.

I feel my live shows are my music; everything blossoms from the live shows.

In the past, I have not been able to hear myself. I play with feeling so I need to hear what is coming out of the amplifier to inspire me; I don't just play mechanically.

We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

I play with feeling so I need to hear what is coming out of the amplifier to inspire me; I don't just play mechanically. I need to hear what I am doing in order to create the next note. If I don't hear it then I can't feed myself.

I grew up seeing my parents perform and sing, and I just always wanted to be singing, too. Music has always been my deepest passion and what I felt most connected to.

Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds?

That's one of the good things about music. You get to do it live, where you can touch the people and interact with them.

Everyone who makes music is a good collaborator at their foundation because in order to make music, you have to connect to it in a way that other people can't.

I'm an intuitive musician. I have no real technical skills. I can only play six chords on the guitar.

Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately.

The act of conducting in itself, of waving my arms in the air and being in charge, I didn't miss. I missed the sensual pleasure of being in contact with music.

The moment you start to talk about playing music, you destroy music. It cannot be talked about. It can only be played, enjoyed and listened to.

I love music; it's my passion.

I cannot say what I think is right about music. I only know the rightness of it.

I love Slipknot. But then I like Jao Gilberto... It's the spirit that comes through in music.

Music is a performing art, as any Native American will tell you. It isn't there in the score.

Everything I do is very visual and very aural, so I don't read music, and I draw as much as I write out lyrics.