 Back in the day, I used to be in the studio recording 20 hours a day. And that was all of the time. I still record a lot of hours, but I don't go as long as I used to. |
| I was being an artist, being sensitive and technical as artists are. I'm sure Leonardo Da Vinci did that. Artists don't always feel the same as others feel about their work. |
| You grow and learn a lot about the industry and what happens behind closed doors over the years. |
| I generally sell my records online or at the show. You can undersell the distributor and the stores, and people know what they're getting cause they've just seen you live. |
| I think music all the time. |
| I'm celebrating my 40th year in show business this year. |
| A lot of the hip hop artists don't write music. They write words. |
| Soul has no musical geographical or racial boundaries. |
| Most artists have contracts directly with the record company, and when they do music, all of their music is owned by the record company. But I did mine through a production company. |
| It's a wonderful feeling just being in this creative motif. |
| The majors, they have to control the distribution, the record outlets, the radio and, in some cases, even the venues. And downloading and pirating have also put pressure on the majors. |
| I couldn't get my album played over the so-called smooth jazz stations. Jazz stations would not play it. You don't always know who you're making that soul connection with. |
| Only a certain number of people go to a store over the period of a year. When a person sees my record on the shelf, it eliminates someone else's record from being sold. It's about continuing to try to find new ways to sell records. |
| I'd definitely love to play in Nashville again. That would be really good. |
| DJs and people in the street know what they like. |
| When I was recording from '70 to '82, I always played piano and laid the tracks down. But I used to talk to the other musicians while the track was playing. |
| Most musicians count at the beginning, and never count and talk to their musicians after that. They only talk to them at the end of the song. But I would count with them and talk. |
| I don't think I'm really so unique. If every black person looked at their life they would quickly discover that they have been influenced by every type of music prevalent in America. |
| Artists don't always know. Almost every song I ever recorded that was a hit at the majors that the promotional people picked I didn't think it would be a hit. I was wrong every time! |
| People are always defining and re-defining music. My style of playing has been characterized as smooth jazz and acid jazz. I listen as I play; I'm not caught up in defining the type of music I play. |
