Jerome Richardson Quotes

Kenny G, I have to be grateful to him for proving that the instrument can be played all different kinds of ways.

I was a born rock n' roll sax player.

My music is jazz.

I would be a horrible lip-syncher. I would only ever sing live - that's why people come and see the show. It's not the easiest thing in the world to sing and dance at the same time, which is why I'm grateful to be able to do both.

My stand-up is quite good now, people say. It's just like a big conversation each time. Every gig is a rehearsal.

The real test of a musician is live performance. It's one thing to spend a long time learning how to play well in the studio, but to do it in front of people is what keeps me coming back to touring.

When I play live, I feel how the audience is going and follow and lead at the same time.

I had listened to Joe Turner. When they'd book Joe there, I'd play the blues behind him.

Actors have to make you believe that it's happening for the first time and all that jazz and make it human and at the same time entertain you.

It takes both courage and talent to stand up in front of fellow human beings and make them crack a smile, and at the same time keep it clean.

What I'm doing is a dream come true but at the same time its work. It's like anything else. The only time it doesn't really feel like work to me is when I'm on stage and doing what I've prepared myself for my whole life which is to stand out in front of a crowd and sing.

I knew Charlie Parker, and he gave us such a gift with his music. He put so much into so little space, and it was tragic that he died so young.

I always felt like the trumpet or trombone player was always the coolest dude in the room.

There's nothing worse than bad scatting, except maybe bad mouth trumpet. Mouth trumpet may sound like a trumpet, but it's really more like playing a kazoo. The instant you do your solo, the audience has a bit of a chuckle.

Chris Martin has this voice that resonates through a whole arena.

My aunt Ruth Brown was a jazz musician. I got hooked on it at a young age, understanding what John Coltrane was doing playing two notes on the saxophone at the same time, which is impossible.

Unlike movies, on stage there are no second chances. Everything is live. If someone messes up, forgets a line, gives the wrong cue, you need to have the presence of mind to move the play along.

I think I might have played a song on piano or guitar in a school talent show. I went to an all girls school, so there were always little things going on, but it wasn't really until I was 17 that I did a proper performance. My first big one was Glastonbury, before I was signed.

I like jazz, and Martin Taylor and his band have it all, including a wonderful saxophonist and very fine accordionist, so you get a rather unusual range of sound.

What makes you a rock star is what are you able to do when you get behind that microphone, when you put that guitar in your hands, when you wield those drumsticks, and when you raise your hand in front of twenty thousand people: do they respond? That's being a rock star.

I want to write songs, and I would like to play and sing them. I'm not a politician; I'm not a comedian. I hate coming up with bits to do between songs.

In an arena, with Girls Aloud, it's a big production and you don't have time to talk to the crowd about the songs.

In theater acting, you leave that night and what it was is what it was.

Drumming is a real part of my live show, and I like to do it because so many people aren't expecting me to go and do it.

If I'm soloing, I usually try to start with a theme, which will often stem from the blues.