LES BAXTER

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.

I was working all the time I was in college. I was working so much that I could hardly do my college work.

That was when the Spanish came in and conquered the Aztecs. I thought that was a clever thing.

Any good music must be an innovation.

I don't know what the problem with Capitol is. Some one's got to wake 'em up. Prod 'em a little bit.

I've been down there 6 times and there's nothing like Brazilian percussion.

I don't try to make 15 musicians sound like two each.

When I want 30 musicians in the orchestra, I get 30.

I aim my arrangements at what will fit and colorfully frame the song in the best way possible.

I love doing concert music.

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.

I've been down there 6 times and there's nothing like Brazilian percussion.

You know, they wanted to do a Broadway album and every show was kind of a bomb. There was no music at all.

I did the Broadway album unfortunately in a year when there were no hits.

Under my contract with Capitol, I have complete freedom to do just about anything I want in my own way.

I love doing concert music.

Regardless of who originally made it popular, any hit song becomes a challenge to the ingenuity and imagination of other musicians and performers.

I aim my arrangements at what will fit and colorfully frame the song in the best way possible.

I don't think the record company is aware of it. Because they just bury my albums and don't release them.

I write emotional music.

I was working all the time I was in college. I was working so much that I could hardly do my college work.

I don't know what the problem with Capitol is. Some one's got to wake 'em up. Prod 'em a little bit.

I don't try to make 15 musicians sound like two each.

When I want 30 musicians in the orchestra, I get 30.

In a sense, a hit belongs to the person who made it popular, but if a tune is good enough to attain tremendous success, then it certainly deserves more than one version, one treatment, one approach.

Any good music must be an innovation.

That was when the Spanish came in and conquered the Aztecs. I thought that was a clever thing.

I'm not an intellectual composer.

Well, that's the secret of commerciality, a simple style and you stick with it.