Learn the rules and then break them in such a way as to exercise good taste.
When people ask me how is it I was a musician, I facetiously say that I'm a firm believer in reincarnation and in a previous life I was Johann Sebastian Bach's guide dog.
I always tell people, it took me 10 minutes and 35 years in the business. I get tired of playing it ["Lullaby of Birdland"], but not of collecting the royalties.
Can anybody be given creativity? No. Only equipment to develop it if it's in them in the first place.
If you establish an identity, you build a monster-and thats right, youve got to live with it. Of course, you can enjoy it, too.
I haven't written an awful lot recently, but I think I probably will start again very shortly. Being so much on the road, when you have a couple of weeks off, you're likely to avoid sitting at the piano, and taping, and giving yourself more work to do.
You know, when you've established a certain thing, what can you do? You're stuck with it.
I don't like freedom jazz - I think it's void of roots and void of foundation.
My affiliation with England is borne out by the fact that I do come back for periodic visits.
In Braille you write your flat sign first and then your note.
The way it works: The orchestra plays a few selections of its own and I terminate the first part of the programme on piano, usually with a movement from a Mozart concerto.
We're travelling for about nine-and-a-half months a year.
Perfect retention. I dont think I could do that-Ive never disciplined myself to do it.I suppose a lot of it is a question of discipline. Which improvisation is not.
When Hank Jones had his night off, I would get somebody to take my place as intermission pianist and I'd play the show with Ella, so I would get a chance to play with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as well.
Teddy Wilson, I think, said a little while ago that its much easier to come in and play whatever comes into your mind, without obeying any of the laws of bass line and harmony and so on.
