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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. "
Steve Lacy
Me
Reed
Spirit
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" 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
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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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" What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged. "
Steve Lacy
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Strategy
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" 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. "
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" I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed. "
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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. "
Steve Lacy
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" 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
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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. "
Steve Lacy
Only
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" Bamboo is not a weed, it's a flowering plant. Bamboo is a magnificent plant. "
Steve Lacy
Bamboo
Weed
Magnificent
" Jazz is people's music, a collectivity. "
Steve Lacy
People
Jazz
Music
" 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
" 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
" Circumstances can be very important. Find the right people to work with. "
Steve Lacy
Circumstances
People
Important
" 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. "
Steve Lacy
Play
Want
You
" I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz. "
Steve Lacy
New
New Orleans
Music
" Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work. "
Steve Lacy
You
Work
Invent
" 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
" 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
" The soprano turned out to sound to me like the right hand on the piano. "
Steve Lacy
Sound
Right
Piano
" 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
" 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 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
" 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
" Register is very important. Music sounds best in a certain register. "
Steve Lacy
Sounds
Music
Important
" You have to sound sad first of all, then maybe later you can sound good. "
Steve Lacy
Sad
Good
First
" 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
" When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly. "
Steve Lacy
Found
Horn
Monk
" 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
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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