John Scofield Quotations

We're going to have to stick to this budget. We're going to have to reduce the defense transfer and we're going to have to drop the gimmicks. That's our starting point and ending point.

We've tried to keep the bill free of extraneous spending.

We sharply limited the number we would consider, based on good government reform. The fewer coming in, the better you can scrub the ones coming in.

legal assistance from Democrats trying to cover up a report that would tar them.

Military bases were damaged that need to be repaired. Those levees (in New Orleans) need to be repaired, so the Army Corps of Engineers is going to need money, ... There's highway money that's going to be needed for all the interstates that have been damaged. There are damages to the wildlife refuges down there.

I guess I got lucky with my sound.

If I was a singer, I'd never do a tribute to Ray, ... If I was a piano player, I'd never do a tribute to Ray. But to take somebody that's so far away from what you do that you really love (I figured that) could be some interesting music. It's really been fun.

He is still dialed in and gives good counsel, and that is what we are seeking.

Katrina strengthens the House's hand that we need to stick to this budget.

I think that he is one of the most unique voices in all of jazz. Nobody sounds like him.

We have concerns about how they got to this reported crisis. We've given them everything they've asked for. That should get them through it.

We passed a clean bill, and we want to keep it as close to the president's request as possible.

When I write a tune - and it's been like this for many years - I always hear in the back of my head some sort of vague, orchestrated, fully fleshed-out big-band version of the song with other parts going on.

We think it's very appropriate for members to have a hand in the decision of how money is spent in their districts.

It's very common for members to change their priorities.

It's one thing to sit at home and write a piece with your guitar, and quite another to have it performed by four people. For me, it's always trial and error.

It makes a difficult job even harder, because there are holes we have to fill. Some of these proposals aren't new, but in an even tighter budget year, the problems are exacerbated.

It's easy to talk about it in the abstract, but the devil's always in the details.

It's really good to be forced to get away and try something else, find something that's exciting.

The administration has threatened to veto the bill over this extraneous rider, and there are too many important initiatives in the bill for that to happen.

It turns out kids today still learn that four-chord progression when they're just picking up the guitar.

The language is still being massaged, but the intent would be to block this specific deal.

In the States, this type of jam-band phenomena has opened it up for groups to improvise, admittedly more in the groove area, as opposed to the straight-ahead jazz thing - which is good for me, as that's one part of where I'm at. It's been so great playing these gigs and seeing kids come out and the whole college scene.

I have to work at tunes to get them to come out. Sometimes I'll sit there for four or five hours and get absolutely nothing.

Generally, when a record label suggests album ideas for you, you smile politely, and then proceed to shoot it down, because it's never what you as an artist feel is right for you.

The Meters are, I think, the most influential group in our time to come out of New Orleans, to have changed and introduced us all to a way of playing, and to a groove and a level of feel in playing funk-jazz.

I find as much inspiration from the forerunners of jazz as I do the modern-day innovators of jazz.

I like forms that are flexible, that can let you feel creative.

Who isn't a fan of Ray Charles?

Hang on to your eccentricities, because they will give you a style.

We don't want any vocalist messing up the music.

... sound is what drives my solos, not verbal concepts, I never think 'I'm going to use a Lydian Dominant scale and then go up a half-step', even though that might be exactly what I end up doing...

When you compare music, you lose the joy of listening to it.

...The key to playing with any group is you listen all the time and you listen more than you play.

... one thing people always ask me is 'How do you play outside?' ... I have no idea how to teach that, but when I was discussing this with our bass player Jesse Murphy, he said 'tell them to go cliff diving'... In other words, when you're jamming, you have to take risks if you want to find new sounds...

This is music I've known since I first started to play the guitar. Ray's music was one of my inspirations: He was a super soul-music man, but he was also a jazz musician, too. I see him as the height of honest expression.

The chairman has been getting earmarks for his district for 25 years ... long before this firm existed.

The jazz clubs wind up having only rich tourists - the kids can't come. If they do, then they spend their entire monthly allotments on a 45-minute set.