When I first met Benny Goodman he wouldn't talk about anything but clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. When I tried to change the subject, he said 'But that's what we have in common. We both play clarinet.' I said, 'No, Benny, that's where we're different. You play clarinet, I play music.'

Artie Shaw

Categorized in : Firsts Play Different

'Swing' is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a 'swing band' in music.

adjectives swings musician

If you don’t see the wonder in the most ordinary phenomenon, you’re not going to resonate very much.

phenomenon wonder ordinary

Dance music-as I keep saying, you can dance to a windshield wiper... a windshield wiper that's fairly steady gives you a beat and all you need is an out-of-tune playing 'Melancholy Baby' and you've got dance music.

tunes baby giving

That's the clarinet I used to use... but it's just a piece of wood, you know, with holes in it and they put these clumsy keys on it and you're supposed to try to take that and manipulate it with throat muscles and chops... and try to make something happen that never happened before. And when you do, you never forget it. It beats sex, it beats anything.

keys trying sex

If you wanna dance, a windshield wiper'll do it-all you need is a... by Artie Shaw

If you wanna dance, a windshield wiper'll do it-all you need is a beat.

beats ballet needs

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been le... by Artie Shaw

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

clarinet has-beens music

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijiana,... by Artie Shaw

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijiana, and will expire on cocaine.

whiskey jazz bottles

Essentially, the popular musician in America must learn that his basic job is to entertain people, to make them forget their sorrows for a moment or two; in the same sense that any popular art form must aim at the same distraction value. Any such job as that is basically a young man's business. It takes a young man's energy to go traveling around the country, night after night in a different place, prancing and cavorting around in front of mobs of people all out to try to forget their problems for an evening. And for a young man it can be a good enough way of life, if he happens to like it.

jobs country art

An audience is in many respects no more than a mob under loose co... by Artie Shaw

An audience is in many respects no more than a mob under loose control.

audience

You have no idea of the women I didn't marry. by Artie Shaw

You have no idea of the women I didn't marry.

no-idea funny-marriage ideas

Listening to Benny [Goodman] talk about the clarinet was like listening to a surgeon get hung up on a scalpel.

scalpels clarinet listening

I like the music. I love it & live it in fact. But for me the business part of music just plain stinks.

jazz music facts

Somebody asked me once, 'Do you think that swing will ever come back?' And I said, 'Do you think the 1938 Ford will ever come back?'

swings jazz thinking

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please... by Artie Shaw

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.

please music artist

The good old days are neither better nor worse than the ones we'r... by Artie Shaw

The good old days are neither better nor worse than the ones we're living through right now.

good-old-days old-days right-now

If I could have done anything more, it would have been less by Artie Shaw

If I could have done anything more, it would have been less

if-i-could has-beens done

An artist should write for himself & not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.

music artist writing

I'm not comfortable with categories, and I distrust most definitions. The word 'definition' is based on the word 'finite,' which would seem to indicate that once we've defined something, we don't need to think about it anymore.

definitions needs thinking

You run into a party and [a] woman comes up to you. She's the most beautiful creature you ever saw - Ava Gardner - and says, "I like you and why don't we get together?" What are you going to say, "No"? You'd have to be an idiot. She was an incredible creature.

running i-like-you beautiful

People ask what those women saw in me. Let's face it, I wasn't a bad-looking stud. But that's not it. It's the music; it's standing up there under the lights. A lot of women just flip; looks have nothing to do with it. You call Mick Jagger good-looking?

light funny people