Words matter. These are the best Benny Green Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I’m glad you asked that question, because of any musical situation I’ve been in, the communication feels great here with Russell. He really pays close attention to what I’m doing because he cares.
No, that’s not it. The first time we met was at Fat Tuesday’s. Benny was playing, this was, I think in 1989?
A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.
I think there’s a natural chemistry between us as friends; and there’s really no separation between the rapport that we feel when we’re in conversation and when we’re playing music, it’s one in the same.
The magic can happen in a studio. Special things can happen in a recording studio, even though it may seem like a clinical environment from the outside looking in.
Ray had so much love of life and the music. He had so much integrity. He treated the music with so much dignity and respect. I spent four and a half years as a sideman with Ray Brown’s trio. Music was his life, more so than anyone I could mention.
The first jazz pianist I heard was Thelonious Monk. My father was listening to an album of his called ‘Monk’s Dream’ almost every day from the time I was born.
I didn’t know when I was growing up that this was a very special program, that this wasn’t going on in other parts of the country. Now I realize that I was lucky.
Actually, I’ve had very little classical training, although I love listening to classical music very much.
Art was carrying me a lot of the time. When you’re accustomed to playing with Art, and you play with other drummers, it’s as if the bottom dropped out.
Any time I need to get a serious attitude adjustment, I put on one of their records, and there are examples there for all time to keep us honest and keep us reaching; they’ll never be eclipsed.
I’m naturally going to react to that and he’ll bring out elements in my musical character that were lying dormant, because I’m relating what he’s playing.
He would catapult you forward, and that was his intention with the Jazz Messengers. He would take young people with a potential and help them develop a voice as a player and as a writer.
