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" 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
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it. "
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" Register is very important. Music sounds best in a certain register. "
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" Saxophone is one thing, and music is another. "
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" 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. "
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" If you have music you want to play that no one asks you to play, you have to go out and find where you can play it. It's called do or die. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed. "
Steve Lacy
Art
Think
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" It starts with a single sound. If there's something in that sound, then it's worth continuing. "
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Single
Sound
Worth
" 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
" The soprano has all those other instruments in it. It's got the soprano song voice, flute, violin, clarinet, and tenor elements and can even approach the baritone in intensity. "
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Violin
Voice
Song
" Whoever has an original thing to say, it is sort of a threat to the status quo. "
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Sort
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Status
" What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged. "
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Discouraged
Strategy
Survival
" 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
" I still love the whole history of jazz. The old things sound better than ever. "
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History
Love
Jazz
" If you're trying to invent something new, you're going to reach a lot of discouraging points, and most people give up. "
Steve Lacy
Going
New
People
" Jazz is people's music, a collectivity. "
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People
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" 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
" Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work. "
Steve Lacy
You
Work
Invent
" 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
" 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
" You have to sound sad first of all, then maybe later you can sound good. "
Steve Lacy
Sad
Good
First
" There is an awful lot of what I call recreational jazz going on, where people go out and learn a particular language or style and become real sharks on somebody else's language. "
Steve Lacy
Sharks
Language
Jazz
" You can work on the saxophone alone, but ultimately you must perform with others. "
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Work
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Saxophone
" 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. "
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Place
Musicians
Club
" Bamboo is not a weed, it's a flowering plant. Bamboo is a magnificent plant. "
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Bamboo
Weed
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" Circumstances can be very important. Find the right people to work with. "
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Circumstances
People
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