Louis Armstrong playing trumpet on the Judgment Day.
When I came to New York after high school in 1959 and started to meet musicians, 'Hot House' was like a standard jam session tune.
There will never be another Frank Sinatra. I never wanted to be another Frank Sinatra. I only wanted to be another Michael Buble.
Thelonious Sphere Monk: there's not a more perfect name to fit his compositions than that name.
Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it.
Man, I used to go around and think, 'Oh my God, what must it be like to be going down the street, and someone asks you, 'What's your name?' and the reply would be, 'John Coltrane.' I couldn't imagine what that would be like.
I've always loved the song 'It Might as Well Be Spring'.
If it has more than three chords, it's jazz.
Duke Ellington was famous for hs very original harmonic patterns.
I think John Coltrane is one of the great American heroes, like Abraham Lincoln and Emily Dickinson.
My general audition song is almost always 'Man That Got Away.'
Let me put it this way: I can sing a hell of an 'Old Man River,' way down in the bass.
I love guys like Charlie Parker.
Somebody, my daughter or my wife, gave me a music box for Christmas. It plays "My Funny Valentine" on celeste, you know? So I had Bobby [Irving] just play "Jean Pierre" with the changes on celeste.
I started cutting my teeth on "Someone To Watch Over Me" [George Gershvin] in the college. I've sung that one for a while. There's something so simple and sweet about that lyric.
Listen to John Coltrane. When he plays 'A Love Supreme,' that guy is totally into himself.
John Coltrane - I've been listening to the 'Trane again. It blows you away, because I know more now and I hear more now and I had a life that I've lived!
All John Coltrane's records are amazing.
Oh, lady be good To me.
A jazz beat is a dynamic changing rhythm.
The duet with Frank Sinatra, 'What Now My Love,' is one of my favorites.
