Top 19 Bobby McFerrin Quotes

My father was a very disciplined singer who worked hard at his craft, and I was around that growing up.

I played piano as a kid; I still play a little bit.

I’d actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet.

It’s not that I don’t love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible.

I grew up in a time when being a musician and learning to be a musician was actually very wonderful.

I prepared five songs, I sang them, and he hired me. I started working about a month later at the piano bar.

If I can bring joy into the world, if I can get people to stop thinking about their pain for a moment, or the fact the tomorrow morning they’re going to get up and tell their boss off… then I’ll be successful.

I have a lot of albums yet to do.

When I’m on stage by myself, I don’t have to think about anything. I don’t have to worry about anything because I’m not responsible for anything except just opening my mouth and making sure music comes out.

Well, I started conducting kind of by accident. I wanted to give myself a special birthday present for my fortieth birthday, and I was living in San Francisco at the time and I started attending some of the concerts and then simply dropping hints.

Then I came up with this crazy idea just to walk out on the stage with no band at all and just start singing whatever came to mind. I actually fought the idea for a while because it seemed almost too radical, but it became obvious what I was supposed to be doing.

Then when I was in grammar school I played the clarinet, and then, after clarinet I played the flute in college orchestra – besides singing in the college chorus and things like that.

Miles Davis turned his back to the audience when he came out on stage, and he offended people. But, he wasn’t there to entertain; he was all about the music. I kind of do that.

I like to use the audience as my color palette, my instrument.

I like a very dark house, just black. I sit there and just think. Once I’m still and quiet inside, I’ll begin. It’s very personal; it has to be. One song may be Bach, the next blues, a song from TV, or a nursery rhyme or jazz piece.

But, if there’s any aspect of my career that needs attention, it’s writing.

Then I left that school and I went to Cerritos College, which was in southern California; they had one of the best big band programs in the country at the time.

My biggest musical influences are probably my parents.

I did the one concert, and I was not bitten by the conducting bug, and I thought I was done, but then the phone started to ring, and gradually, over time, I started conducting more and more. Now a third of my performances are with orchestras.