Roy Ayers

“People in England were coming up to me, saying, My mother and father turned me on to your music. This happened to me 20 years ago. When I was 40 they were saying that.”

“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.”

“It's a wonderful feeling just being in this creative motif.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“A lot of the hip hop artists don't write music. They write words.”

“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 still look good. I'm trippin', but people tell me that all the time. So check it out, I'm 63, and still kicking. I've been putting records out every year.”

“I always had this energy level that made me want to come to New York.”

“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.”

“DJs and people in the street know what they like.”

“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.”

“Now I get exposure first with people directly in the clubs. This is a unique situation for me.”

“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!”

“I've been sampled so much and I'm glad it's happened, it's a great compliment.”

“Soul has no musical geographical or racial boundaries.”

“I was with PolyGram; that was the big label that I was with for the longest, like 12 years.”

“The true beauty of music is that it connects people. It carries a message, and we, the musicians, are the messengers.”

“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.”