Stefon Harris Quotes

The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities.

What I love about jazz is the improvisation, the fact that you never know what's going to happen next.

Jazz is something that's constantly changing. Its sole purpose is to let people improvise, to let them solo differently each time they play. And that's always been what I like best.

We dont make mistakes. We have happy accidents.

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

I like to think that we've got a plan, so let's stick to it. That said, once we've stuck to it, we're allowed as much improvisation as anyone cares to indulge themselves in.

The apparatus has to serve our improbability and improvisation. Being good and playing the songs is not enough.

I think jazz has given me freedom with my voice.

I don't ever know where I'm going. Because one of the wonderful things about writing, which is different than working in programming, you don't need to know. You could just write and discover where you're going. And it's a great deal of fun.

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

As long as there are musicians who have a passion for spontaneity, for creating something that's never been before, the art form of jazz will flourish.

The fun stuff comes when someone is not so strict on sticking to the script. You're allowed the spontaneity, and great moments can happen.

I like to be sort of grounded with Fish. But, at the same time, I think probably what's unique about us is the way other dynamics happen, where I'll play off Trey for awhile. When we start playing a jam, I don't usually know what's going to happen, I don't have a plan.

I was the same kind of father as I was a harpist - I played by ear.

Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by ear.

You have to grab moments when they happen. I like to improvise and ad lib.

Diplomacy is a little bit like Jazz. It’s improvisation on a theme.

Jazz is pretty much the freest thing you can be a part of. It's the closest thing I can get to flying. It's fun, interactive. In its own way, it's a sport.

In the performance sense, I find that interpretation is improvisatory in nature. You can go anywhere with an interpretation on any given day.

Sound-wise, I'm really limitless in the way I write songs. Whatever comes out, comes out. Every song is completely different.

I don't believe in closed scripts; I think that they should be open.

Something that comics afford me is being able to change my mind at the last minute.

I love playing jazz because I love the freedom you have to improvise. It has given me a feeling in my classical repertoire of creating the atmosphere of the here and now.

'Enlightened Rogues' we made like the earlier ones: whatever tune came up, whatever direction it went in, that's the way it went. That's what we'll always do. I think if we ever stop doin' that, we ought to quit.