Steve Lacy Quotes

• Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Work

• I still love the whole history of jazz. The old things sound better than ever.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in History, Love

  Tags in Jazz

• 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

  Topics in Love

  Tags in Jazz

• Circumstances can be very important. Find the right people to work with.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People, Right

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Pianist

• Bamboo is not a weed, it’s a flowering plant. Bamboo is a magnificent plant.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Plant

• I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People

• I was spoiled by Monk’s music because it was so good, so complete.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music

• I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Nature

  Tags in Collaboration

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Alone, Crazy

• It starts with a single sound. If there’s something in that sound, then it’s worth continuing.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Single, Sound

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Working, Limit

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Trying, Invent

• Jazz is people’s music, a collectivity.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Jazz

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Play

• Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Jazz, Wine

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Important

• If you listen to Louis Armstrong from 1929, you will never hear anything better than that really, and you will never hear anything more free than that.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Listen

• Kenny G, I have to be grateful to him for proving that the instrument can be played all different kinds of ways.

  Steve Lacy

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Grateful

Steve Lacy (45)

Birth:	23rd July, 1934
Death:	4th June, 2004
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Composer, Saxophonist

Related Authors

• Oscar Emmanuel Peterson
• Bruno Walter
• Brian Jones
• Virgil Thomson
• Maurice Jarre
• Ikue Mori
• David Del Tredici
• Malcolm Williamson
• Bill Frisell
• Gunther Schuller

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 1st April

Births

• 1885 - Wallace Beery
• 1929 - Milan Kundera
• 1895 - Alberta Hunter
• 1922 - Alan Perlis
• 1940 - Wangari Maathai

Deaths

• 1991 - Martha Graham
• 1960 - David Seabury
• 1994 - Robert Doisneau
• 1976 - Max Ernst
• 1917 - Scott Joplin