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 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-quo threat uprising 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 jazz music want It starts with a single sound. If there's something in that sound, then it's worth continuing. Steve Lacy continuing ifs sound I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed. Steve Lacy collaboration art thinking The potential for the saxophone is unlimited. Steve Lacy saxophone unlimited Jazz is like wine. When it is new it's only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it. Steve Lacy music wine experts When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now. Steve Lacy originality awful research 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 dancer artist athlete Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk. Steve Lacy music play heart 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 saxophone pieces play 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 elements voice song The saxophone is a very interesting machine, but I'm more interested in music. Steve Lacy saxophone machines interesting 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 marijuana weed doe What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged. Steve Lacy strategy survival temptation Saxophone is one thing, and music is another. Steve Lacy saxophone one-thing music-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 sharks real fear 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 crazy stupid years Jazz is people's music, a collectivity. Steve Lacy collectivity jazz people It's very important to go through periods where you sound just rotten and you know it, and you have to persevere or give up. Steve Lacy giving-up important sound
