Steve Lacy

“Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk.”

“There is an awful lot of what I call recreational jazz going on, where people go out and learn a particular language or style and become real sharks on somebody else's language.”

“You can work on the saxophone alone, but ultimately you must perform with others.”

“What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged.”

“The more original something is, the more of a threat it seems until the people catch up with it. That happened with Thelonious Monk. It happened with anybody who is really original.”

“I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz.”