Count Basie Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Count Basie's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Jazz Pianist Count Basie's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 20 quotes on this page collected since August 21, 1904! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
All quotes by Count Basie: more...
  • I don't dig that two-beat jive the New Orleans cats play. My boys and I have to have four heavy beats to the bar and no cheating.

    Music   Cheating   Cat  
  • I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can't define it beyond that.

    Thinking   Swings   Feet  
  • Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

    Funny   Music   Way  
  • If a guy is gonna to play good bop, he has to have a sort of a bop soul.

    Play   Guy   Soul  
  • I got everything I wanted. When I was young in Kansas City, I knew nothing about Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, of all those concert halls, of all those countries. I did not know what it was like to direct a band... All I wanted was to be big, to be in show-business, and to travel...and that's what I've been doing all my life.

  • All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel ... and that's what I've been doing all my life.

    Bigs   Shows   Wanted  
  • The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

    Music   Real   Just Being  
  • Learn to deal with the valleys and the hills will take care of themselves.

    Valleys   Care   Hills  
  • I was always willing to say, "Let's see what happens," when something came up that looked like it might help me get a little closer to where I wanted to be . . .

    Littles   Might   Helping  
  • I never thought innovation as such was very important. Not when you have to think about it... If you're going to come up with a new direction or a really new way to do something, you'll do it by just playing your stuff and letting it ride. The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

  • It's the way you play that makes it . . . Play like you play. Play like you think, and then you got it, if you're going to get it. And whatever you get, that's you, so that's your story.

    Thinking   Play   Stories  
    Count Basie, Albert Murray (1985). “Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie”, Plume
  • I'll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I'd never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I'd never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn't much like it at first.

  • Freddie Green has been my right arm for thirty years. And if he leaves the band one day, I'll probably leave with him.

    Years   One Day   Band  
  • If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune.

    Music   Play   Feet  
  • Oscar Peterson plays the best ivory box I've ever heard.

    Play   Ivory   Oscars  
  • If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!

    Music   Night   Play  
  • I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch.

    Real   Play   Tunes  
  • I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, 'Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.'

    Names   Would Be   Cards  
    Count Basie, Albert Murray (1985). “Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie”, Plume
  • Keep on listening & tapping your feet.

    Music   Feet   Listening  
  • I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter.

    Count Basie, Albert Murray (1985). “Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie”, Plume
Page 1 of 1
We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 20 quotes from the Jazz Pianist Count Basie, starting from August 21, 1904! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
Count Basie quotes about: