Top 17 Quotes by Carla Bley

When Ronald Reagan was elected I was on a bus traveling with a band in France. I wrote a little arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner in a minor key.

When you are studying jazz, the best thing to do is listen to records or listen to live music. It isn't as though you go to a teacher. You just listen as much as you can and absorb everything.

Listening is more important than anything else because that's what music is. Somebody is playing something and you're receiving it. It is sending and receiving.

There are times when what's happening in rock is the best music in the world, and there are times when there is nothing worthwhile at all.

I don't need much coaxing.

I still prefer the bebop of the '40s. The very stuff I started out with is still the best to me. I have come full circle.

One performer whose band played my music better than I could myself was Art Farmer. He recorded 'Sing Me Softly of the Blues' and 'Ad Infinitum'.

I don't think you can ever regain your ignorance.

It would be really hard to get serious about anything political today unless it was a joke.

I got started when I was 3 years old because my father was a music teacher and my lessons were free. Instead of learning to walk, you learn to play the piano.