Gary Cherone Quotes

I've always wanted to record a jazz record. I did one in the '70s with Barbara Carroll. It's been a journey.

If I am playing any music at all it is jazz music.

I haven't been afraid of John Coltrane or Miles Davis or Bill Evans or Wayne Shorter or Herbie Hancock. Why would I be afraid of the Beatles?

When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly.

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.

Coltrane would do what you'd get a Roland Pro Tools module to do but with a group of jazz musicians.

I haven't a great jazz band, and I don't want one.

In some ways, jazz is the most precise of art forms and the loosest in the sense that it's all about improvisation, but the musicianship required is kind of insane. To actually play with real jazz musicians is a different level of musicianship that almost has no equal in any other form of music in the world.

I always wanted to sing a jazz record.

Thelonious Monk was one of the musicians I most connected with early on. I'm a huge Betty Carter fan, and the way that Abbey Lincoln and Shirley Horn grew immensely from the time they were young is so inspirational.

One of the things that I loved about listening to Miles Davis is that Miles always had an instinct for which musicians were great for what situations. He could always pick a band, and that was the thing that separated him from everybody else.

If you really dissect hip-hop you will find a whole lot of Charles Mingus, Ron Carter, Ahmad Jamal, a lot of classic jazz samples in there.

I recorded my first jazz record in the '70s.

Bud Powell's probably the biggest influence on my piano playing.

Bernstein grew up in my building in New York. He's a very, very fine player. When he was a kid, he came by to find out what was going on in the world of jazz.

I think that people should learn about that. In most music, there's one way that you do something, and that's the only way. In jazz, it's a lot different.

In my view a jazz musician is a great musician.

I was blessed to work with The Jazz Messengers when the two piano players were Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea.

We don't live in a jazz world, unfortunately. I think if I had lived in a jazz world, I would have done OK. I'm not sure I would have done great. I'm a lover of jazz music, so I would have been happy, don't get me wrong. I go to jazz concerts like the biggest jazz fan in world. The drag is that I don't play jazz for a living.

People who don't do jazz think it's black magic. But really, it's just a matter of getting used to it. It's fun to gamble. The trick is not to fall back on the things you've done before.

Bill Evans is a real serious jazz pianist who, in my book, crossed over boundaries in terms of color. He used the piano as his canvas.

There is an awful lot of what I call recreational jazz going on, where people go out and learn a particular language or style and become real sharks on somebody else's language.

The month of September is Women in Jazz, so I'm doing jazz there in September. I'm in for the duration.

What I'm doing, I prefer to call that jazz, because it is a beautiful word - I love it.