I spent a lot of time teaching myself theory and harmony so I could be free to express myself on the instrument.
I have been doing music all my life so everyday when I get up I expect music will be part of it.
As my career has progressed, I’ve had the pleasure of playing with the baddest jazz cats on the planet. But that doesn’t change my desire to entertain folks. That’s really who I am.
The melody is the most important thing that must stay in the minds of the people who listen to you. No matter how many notes you play, you can’t let them forget what the song is.
The less one remembers about the day before, the more the new day will be unfettered by triviality.
The greatest teacher is just going out and playing.
Love songs are one of the great essences of life, the only thing thats lasting.
I listen to other guitar players, yeah. It gives me new concepts and shows me where the instrument is going for the future and it is going some places. There are some musicians who are really putting out a good vibe with new theories. I try and keep up.
No matter what they take from me, they can’t take away my dignity.
Guitar gigs were everywhere in the ’50s, and I started diddling around so I could keep working. Playing honky-tonk, simple stuff. I took a few gigs with an organ band that put me out front.
The first time I tried to sing along with my guitar, everybody in the studio booed. They all said it wouldn’t work.
My whole career from the early 70s on has been mind-blowing. I didn’t imagine in my life that I would ever be considered a guitar player first of all because I started off as a singer.
People who love jazz musicians love us when we play what we want to play and we’re starving. But as soon as you commercialize your sound like Wes Montgomery did, the jazz fans and the critics are down on you!
Never give up on a good thing, never give up, never give up!
I’ve had the pleasure of playing with the baddest Jazz cats on the planet.
There is no finer guitarist than Kenny Burrell.