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" I wanted to be a pianist but it just wasn't my thing. I guess I wanted to stand up rather than sit down. "
Steve Lacy
Up
Just
Sit
Related Quotes:
" I've performed solo for 20 years now, but I don't do much of it, because if you only play alone, you go crazy and out of tune and play foolish music. "
Steve Lacy
Play
Now
Alone
" When I first started playing music in 1955, there was just a small body of people that knew it. It was a very esoteric type of thing. "
Steve Lacy
People
Body
Music
" Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it. "
Steve Lacy
Only
Jazz
Older
" Circumstances can be very important. Find the right people to work with. "
Steve Lacy
Circumstances
People
Important
" Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work. "
Steve Lacy
You
Work
Invent
" Kenny G, I have to be grateful to him for proving that the instrument can be played all different kinds of ways. "
Steve Lacy
Different
Him
Be Grateful
" Nobody was playing the soprano saxophone and certainly nobody was trying to do anything with it. So I was all alone. I didn't know that at first. "
Steve Lacy
Know
Alone
Saxophone
" We played for peanuts. But we did what we wanted to do, we heard what we wanted to hear, we performed what we wanted to perform, we learned what we wanted to learn. "
Steve Lacy
Did
Learned
Wanted
" The potential for the saxophone is unlimited. "
Steve Lacy
Saxophone
Unlimited
Potential
" Jazz is people's music, a collectivity. "
Steve Lacy
People
Jazz
Music
" I still love the whole history of jazz. The old things sound better than ever. "
Steve Lacy
History
Love
Jazz
" When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now. "
Steve Lacy
Now
Originality
Research
" People don't want to suffer. They want to sound good immediately, and this is one of the biggest problems in the world. "
Steve Lacy
Good
World
Want
" I fell in love with jazz when I was 12 years old from listening to Duke Ellington and hearing a lot of jazz in New York on the radio. "
Steve Lacy
New
Love
Jazz
" When I heard Monk in person in 1955, he was playing with a quartet in a small club. The place was full of musicians, but there was no public at all. "
Steve Lacy
Place
Musicians
Club
" It's very important to go through periods where you sound just rotten and you know it, and you have to persevere or give up. "
Steve Lacy
You
Through
Sound
" The soprano turned out to sound to me like the right hand on the piano. "
Steve Lacy
Sound
Right
Piano
" The more original something is, the more of a threat it seems until the people catch up with it. That happened with Thelonious Monk. It happened with anybody who is really original. "
Steve Lacy
People
Monk
Original
" Some people really want to play Mozart and be just performers. I was more interested in invention. "
Steve Lacy
Want
Some People
People
" I've been working on the soprano saxophone for 40 years, and the possibilities are astounding. It's up to you, the only limit is the imagination. "
Steve Lacy
Imagination
Limit
Possibilities
" They call me before they go into production, when they have a prototype, and they call legitimate saxophonists, too. As opposed to the other kind. "
Steve Lacy
Kind
Production
Before
" I heard Sidney Bechet play a Duke Ellington piece and fell in love with the soprano saxophone. "
Steve Lacy
Saxophone
Play
Love
" Whoever has an original thing to say, it is sort of a threat to the status quo. "
Steve Lacy
Sort
Original
Status
" I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz. "
Steve Lacy
New
New Orleans
Music
" Register is very important. Music sounds best in a certain register. "
Steve Lacy
Sounds
Music
Important
" You must have the music to justify an instrument's extensive use. "
Steve Lacy
You
Must
Music
" You can work on the saxophone alone, but ultimately you must perform with others. "
Steve Lacy
Work
You
Saxophone
" Play difficult and interesting things. If you play boring things, you risk losing your appetite. Saxophone can be tedious with too much of the same. "
Steve Lacy
Interesting
Losing
Play
" I've always been extremely lucky in playing with great people who knew much more than I did. That's how I got from there to here. "
Steve Lacy
Here
Great
Lucky
" To me, there is spirit in a reed. It's a living thing, a weed, really, and it does contain spirit of a sort. It's really an ancient vibration. "
Steve Lacy
Me
Reed
Spirit