All the classic jazz players all sang and a lot of ’em sang blues.
The things that really matter don’t mix with idle chatter.
I been getting good crowds. It only took 50 years.
I never sit down and write. I just sorta let things form in my brain.
I do very few standards. Hardly any. Other people’s tunes that I do are usually obscure tunes, for the most part, although I do a couple of Duke Ellington tunes that are well known.
I finally decided if I was going to make a living, I was gonna have to come to New York.
I have no idea what I’m doin’. I’ve never seen me.
I don’t sit down to write a song; they just come to me from something that somebody says, or something in the news. The punchline comes to me, and I go over it in my head and get the song form. I hadn’t been doing that a lot.
I’m always storing away phrases and ideas and things that I think might turn into songs.
I just have a lot off different influences.
I’m not inspired by songwriting at all; that took place years ago. I’m pretty well established, as far as my influences go. I don’t listen to music anymore. It all sounds the same to me.
I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me.