Jimmy Smith

I always had the facial hair so I looked older than I was.

I heard Mr. Wild Bill Davis. I heard him play in 1930 and he told me that it would take me fifteen years just to learn the pedals, the pedals of the organ and I got mad.

My first recording, a guy came down to Philadelphia and heard me play and he introduced me to Alfred Lion.

What makes knowledge automatic is what gets you to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice.

I don't think they're going to pay me to play Mufasa.

My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant.