Steve Lacy quotes

You can work on the saxophone alone, but ultimately you must perform with others. (Steve Lacy)
When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now. View quote
Steve Lacy
I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed. View quote
Steve Lacy
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. View quote
Steve Lacy
I still love the whole history of jazz. The old things sound better than ever. View quote
Steve Lacy
Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it. View quote
Steve Lacy
Saxophone is one thing, and music is another. View quote
Steve Lacy
The potential for the saxophone is unlimited. View quote
Steve Lacy
Circumstances can be very important. Find the right people to work with. View quote
Steve Lacy
Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk. View quote
Steve Lacy
I've been working on the soprano saxophone for 40 years, and the possibilities are astounding. It's up to you, the only limit is the imagination. (Steve Lacy)
Whoever has an original thing to say, it is sort of a threat to the status quo. View quote
Steve Lacy
I heard Sidney Bechet play a Duke Ellington piece and fell in love with the soprano saxophone. View quote
Steve Lacy
What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged. View quote
Steve Lacy
Kenny G, I have to be grateful to him for proving that the instrument can be played all different kinds of ways. View quote
Steve Lacy
If you're trying to invent something new, you're going to reach a lot of discouraging points, and most people give up. View quote
Steve Lacy
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. View quote
Steve Lacy
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. View quote
Steve Lacy
If you have music you want to play that no one asks you to play, you have to go out and find where you can play it. It's called do or die. View quote
Steve Lacy
Play difficult and interesting things. If you play boring things, you risk losing your appetite. Saxophone can be tedious with too much of the same. View quote
Steve Lacy
Register is very important. Music sounds best in a certain register. (Steve Lacy)
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. View quote
Steve Lacy
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. View quote
Steve Lacy
It starts with a single sound. If there's something in that sound, then it's worth continuing. View quote
Steve Lacy
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. View quote
Steve Lacy