Steve Lacy quotes - page 2

Bamboo is not a weed, it's a flowering plant. Bamboo is a magnificent plant. (Steve Lacy)
Jazz is people's music, a collectivity. View quote
Steve Lacy
The saxophone is a very interesting machine, but I'm more interested in music. View quote
Steve Lacy
I wanted to be a pianist but it just wasn't my thing. I guess I wanted to stand up rather than sit down. View quote
Steve Lacy
You must have the music to justify an instrument's extensive use. View quote
Steve Lacy
Nobody was playing the soprano saxophone and certainly nobody was trying to do anything with it. So I was all alone. I didn't know that at first. View quote
Steve Lacy
Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work. View quote
Steve Lacy
People don't want to suffer. They want to sound good immediately, and this is one of the biggest problems in the world. View quote
Steve Lacy
We played for peanuts. But we did what we wanted to do, we heard what we wanted to hear, we performed what we wanted to perform, we learned what we wanted to learn. View quote
Steve Lacy
Some people really want to play Mozart and be just performers. I was more interested in invention. View quote
Steve Lacy
I fell in love with jazz when I was 12 years old from listening to Duke Ellington and hearing a lot of jazz in New York on the radio. (Steve Lacy)
The soprano turned out to sound to me like the right hand on the piano. View quote
Steve Lacy
You have to sound sad first of all, then maybe later you can sound good. View quote
Steve Lacy
When I first started playing music in 1955, there was just a small body of people that knew it. It was a very esoteric type of thing. View quote
Steve Lacy
I've always been extremely lucky in playing with great people who knew much more than I did. That's how I got from there to here. View quote
Steve Lacy
The more original something is, the more of a threat it seems until the people catch up with it. That happened with Thelonious Monk. It happened with anybody who is really original. View quote
Steve Lacy
They call me before they go into production, when they have a prototype, and they call legitimate saxophonists, too. As opposed to the other kind. View quote
Steve Lacy
I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz. View quote
Steve Lacy
I was spoiled by Monk's music because it was so good, so complete. View quote
Steve Lacy
When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly. View quote
Steve Lacy
When I heard Monk in person in 1955, he was playing with a quartet in a small club. The place was full of musicians, but there was no public at all. (Steve Lacy)