Johnny Gimble Quotes

If I'm soloing, I usually try to start with a theme, which will often stem from the blues.

The radio is playing jazz, and I listen to the sound of the trumpet playing a solo until I become that sound.

The great love of my life is music.

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

Where music leads, I follow.

There was a lot of freedom, so bands in those days did not have to play for the public. They played for club owners that enjoyed music. You know, what happened - there was a lot of clubs that had bebop music or different forms of music. It was great for musicians.

People comment on the way that I phrase. And in my 20s, I realized, my phrasing is jazz phrasing. I don't comply strictly with musical theater phrasing. Musical theater tends to be very one and three, and jazz is definitely two and four.

Dilla was a John Coltrane-type dude. He was always on a higher level. He inspired my music to become looser and more soulful.

Jazz is something that's constantly changing. Its sole purpose is to let people improvise, to let them solo differently each time they play. And that's always been what I like best.

For me, the music is always like the small rowboat I get into at the very beginning of my process.

Drum on your drums, batter on your banjos, sob on the long cool winding saxophones. Go to it, O jazzmen.

John Coltrane, he talks to god. He starts playing his solo, he might play for 14 minutes. For 14 minutes, it seems like he's talking to god, but he always takes a hold of the melody.

That was something we were trying to figure out: Are we allowed to do a jazz song? Are we allowed to do cabaret? Just from hearing the Beatles, it was like, 'Well, they did it. It's okay to write something other than a standard rock song.'

I grew up listening to Ravel, Debussy, Bartok and jazz like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhart. It was incredibly inspiring! And I was given a guitar and I said 'What the hell is this?!'

Songs seem to always spring from improvisation.

I don't really play a lot of slide in general, but it was fun getting into that style and exploring it.

Jazz has a lot to do with being very present. You know the structure, then you flow through it.

We listen to a lot of classical and a lot of jazz, and so you get some funky notes here and there. And we get a little experimental in some of the deeper tracks.

The way it always starts with me making my music is I will never, ever start with the production first. It's always me at the piano, fresh on the day. I never come with anything prepared.

The way I like to think about it is, even though I started music early - I started in classical music - it wasn't until I discovered jazz that I really fell in love with music and realized this was what I wanted to do for a living.

I always find that, when it comes to writing songs, if the melody and the chords are working, we're 90 per cent there.

All I'm trying to do is simply play guitar and elicit this creativity from the instrument.

One of the things I love about jazz music is that intent is first and execution is second. In classical music, execution is first and intent is second, meaning that you must first learn a piece before you can truly add your interpretation to it.

You really have to play with the space in a riff so it can be allowed to breathe.

Without a song the day would never end Without a song the road would never bend When things go wrong a man ain't got a friend Without a song