J. J. Johnson Quotes

Jazz music is the power of now.

I've always done very 'composed' music and worked-out solos. But sometimes it's fun not knowing where you're going.

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

Jazz is the music of unemployment.

To me, jazz is the closest thing to insanity that there is in music.

The rhythm of life is a jazz rhythm

The wonderful thing about Jazz is its willingness to take chances.

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

I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.

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.

Jazz is all about improvisation and it's about the moment in time, doing it this way now, and you'll never do it this way twice. I've studied the masters. Why would I want to play ball after the guys who sit on a bench? I want to play like Michael Jordan.

This band makes sure that we have whole sections of stuff that are free form so that they don't know what we are doing next, that is the fun part of playing. You are playing something that you haven't ever played before.

That's kind of like how jazz is sometimes. You're out there predicting the future, and no one believes you.

Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance.

I actually found not having a routine was inspiration.

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

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.

If you're always playing the correct notes, there's something wrong - you're not searching; you're not reaching for anything.

What makes jazz different is that you can't predict it, it's all about freedom. Just when you think you know what you're going to hear there'll be a left turn, a jazz musician will change it up.

I like to improvise so much live because I get bored playing the same thing over again. It's like the kid at school that already knows all the answers so doodles all over the paper. I do that a lot live.

Playing live is really the art form. You're a lot freer, a lot looser. You've got people there that can give you feedback, and then you can play off of that. There's so much more energy.

I like to leave a little room to innovate and change things around while I'm working.

I'm a person of change and I must be honest to my artistry and my creativity. That's part of the word 'jazz'... it's an adventure.

Yes it was chaos, working through chaos, you never quite knew what you were going to do each day, but you knew that you wanted to make something.

Jazz I regard as an American folk music; not the only one, but a very powerful one which is probably in the blood and feeling of the American people more than any other style of folk music.