Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work. Steve Lacy More Quotes by Steve Lacy More Quotes From Steve Lacy Whoever has an original thing to say, it is sort of a threat to the status quo. Steve Lacy status-quothreatuprising In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds. Steve Lacy jazzmusicwant It starts with a single sound. If there's something in that sound, then it's worth continuing. Steve Lacy continuingifssound I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed. Steve Lacy collaborationartthinking The potential for the saxophone is unlimited. Steve Lacy saxophoneunlimited Jazz is like wine. When it is new it's only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it. Steve Lacy musicwineexperts When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now. Steve Lacy originalityawfulresearch A jazz musician is a combination orator, dialectician, mathematician, athlete, entertainer, poet, singer, dancer, diplomat, educator, student, comedian, artist, seducer, public masturbator, and general all-round good fellow. Steve Lacy dancerartistathlete Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk. Steve Lacy musicplayheart You can work on the saxophone alone, but ultimately you must perform with others. Steve Lacy saxophone I heard Sidney Bechet play a Duke Ellington piece and fell in love with the soprano saxophone. Steve Lacy saxophonepiecesplay The soprano has all those other instruments in it. It's got the soprano song voice, flute, violin, clarinet, and tenor elements and can even approach the baritone in intensity. Steve Lacy elementsvoicesong The saxophone is a very interesting machine, but I'm more interested in music. Steve Lacy saxophonemachinesinteresting To me, there is spirit in a reed. It's a living thing, a weed, really, and it does contain spirit of a sort. It's really an ancient vibration. Steve Lacy marijuanaweeddoe What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged. Steve Lacy strategysurvivaltemptation Saxophone is one thing, and music is another. Steve Lacy saxophoneone-thingmusic-is There is an awful lot of what I call recreational jazz going on, where people go out and learn a particular language or style and become real sharks on somebody else's language. Steve Lacy sharksrealfear I've performed solo for 20 years now, but I don't do much of it, because if you only play alone, you go crazy and out of tune and play foolish music. Steve Lacy crazystupidyears Jazz is people's music, a collectivity. Steve Lacy collectivityjazzpeople If you listen to Louis Armstrong from 1929, you will never hear anything better than that really, and you will never hear anything more free than that. Steve Lacy armstrongifs
