Music with Ease > Jazz Quotes > Oscar Peterson Quotes

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"I'm a musician and, just as the critics are hard on me, I'm hard on the critics."
-- Oscar Peterson

"I despair about the lack of proper respect shown for the piano. If you want it to sound like a traffic jam, go out in the street and forget the piano. That's not a piano sound."
-- Oscar Peterson

"It’s the group sound that’s important, even when you’re playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That’s jazz."
-- Oscar Peterson

"Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they’re trying to say with jazz. You don’t need any prologues, you just play. If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you."
-- Oscar Peterson

"I don’t do something because I think it will sell 30 million albums. I couldn’t care less. If it sells one, it sells one."
-- Oscar Peterson

"Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing. I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea. I have no one style. I play as I feel."
-- Oscar Peterson





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Author: David Paul Wagner
(David Paul Wagner on Google+)