Count Basie

“I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are enjoying yourself.”

“The secret is to make your music sound like it's coming from one person, not a bunch of people.”

“It's the way you play that makes it. What I like to play is the blues.”

“I don't dig that modern stuff. I don't get it. I like to hear a melody.”

“Pop tunes are just songs that are very popular, and people like them and listen to them. Jazz is a little more complicated; you have to be a little more advanced to understand it.”

“If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune.”

“I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted to play them in a jazzy way. I didn't want to play them straight.”

“My guys are my guys. I'm not a dictator. I'm a guy that likes to hear my guys play.”

“I was always a piano player. I never thought of myself as a bandleader.”

“Keep it simple, stupid.”

“I decided that I would be the umpire. I wouldn't be playing on the field, but I would be the umpire.”

“I'm just a piano player from Red Bank, New Jersey.”

“The blues is the basis of most of the music that has any real feeling.”