1.
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.
Steve Lacy
2.
Jazz is people's music, a collectivity.
Steve Lacy
3.
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
4.
Bamboo is not a weed, it's a flowering plant. Bamboo is a magnificent plant.
Steve Lacy
5.
Whoever has an original thing to say, it is sort of a threat to the status quo.
Steve Lacy
6.
The potential for the saxophone is unlimited.
Steve Lacy
7.
Saxophone is one thing, and music is another.
Steve Lacy
8.
You can work on the saxophone alone, but ultimately you must perform with others.
Steve Lacy
9.
I still love the whole history of Jazz. The old things sound better than ever.
Steve Lacy
10.
It starts with a single sound. If there's something in that sound, then it's worth continuing.
Steve Lacy
11.
I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed.
Steve Lacy
12.
In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds.
Steve Lacy
13.
Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk.
Steve Lacy
14.
Jazz is like wine. When it is new it's only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it.
Steve Lacy
15.
I heard Sidney Bechet play a Duke Ellington piece and fell in love with the soprano saxophone.
Steve Lacy
16.
When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now.
Steve Lacy
17.
A jazz musician is a combination orator, dialectician, mathematician, athlete, entertainer, poet, singer, dancer, diplomat, educator, student, comedian, artist, seducer, public masturbator, and general all-round good fellow.
Steve Lacy
18.
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
19.
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
20.
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
21.
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
22.
What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged.
Steve Lacy
23.
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
24.
I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz.
Steve Lacy
25.
Circumstances can be very important. Find the right people to work with.
Steve Lacy
26.
The saxophone is a very interesting machine, but I'm more interested in music.
Steve Lacy
27.
You must have the music to justify an instrument's extensive use.
Steve Lacy
28.
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
29.
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
30.
Kenny G, I have to be grateful to him for proving that the instrument can be played all different kinds of ways.
Steve Lacy
31.
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
32.
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
33.
Register is very important. Music sounds best in a certain register.
Steve Lacy
34.
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
35.
Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work.
Steve Lacy
36.
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
37.
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
38.
Make the drummer sound good.
Steve Lacy
39.
A young pianist & composer who has demonstrated an exceptional creativity, in both his playing & his writing, as well as showing us all, his very strong commitment & motivation to aim for high musical goals. Talent like his is rare.
Steve Lacy