49 Quotes by Herbie Mann

Music allows the great opportunity to play with people you love.

If you keep your head in the sand, you don't know where the kick's coming from.

Let's say you have some chicken stock and you're making soup, and out of everything you can taste, some of the things you put in and some of the things you don't. So you start out with an African spice then you hear some Brazilian music, so then it changes. Then you hear Jamaican and it changes again. And the result depends on how much of each spice you put into it. Now, I've been putting in spices since I started playing professionally in 1945.

As much as I think John Coltrane belongs on the list, I think without Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, both of whom defined improvising on the tenor sax, there would not have been the evolution of the craft by John Coltrane.

If you're in jazz and more than ten people like you, you're labeled commercial.

You know, my mother is 95 and lives alone in Florida. So, you know, I ain't ready to throw in the towel. I still have lots of music that I want to do.

If you keep your head in the sand, you don’t know where the kick’s coming from.

You have to be concerned with yourself because if you’re not on it all the time, nobody else is going to be.

If you’re in jazz and more than ten people like you, you’re labeled commercial.