When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now. – Steve Lacy
It starts with a single sound. If there’s something in that sound, then it’s worth continuing. – Steve Lacy
Play difficult and interesting things. If you play boring things, you risk losing your appetite. Saxophone can be tedious with too much of the same. – Steve Lacy
They call me before they go into production, when they have a prototype, and they call legitimate saxophonists, too. As opposed to the other kind. – Steve Lacy
I’ve always been extremely lucky in playing with great people who knew much more than I did. That’s how I got from there to here. – Steve Lacy
I’ve performed solo for 20 years now, but I don’t do much of it, because if you only play alone, you go crazy and out of tune and play foolish music. – Steve Lacy
If you listen to Louis Armstrong from 1929, you will never hear anything better than that really, and you will never hear anything more free than that. – Steve Lacy
I wanted to be a pianist but it just wasn’t my thing. I guess I wanted to stand up rather than sit down. – Steve Lacy
We played for peanuts. But we did what we wanted to do, we heard what we wanted to hear, we performed what we wanted to perform, we learned what we wanted to learn. – Steve Lacy
Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it. – Steve Lacy
Kenny G, I have to be grateful to him for proving that the instrument can be played all different kinds of ways. – Steve Lacy
To me, there is spirit in a reed. It’s a living thing, a weed, really, and it does contain spirit of a sort. It’s really an ancient vibration. – Steve Lacy
It’s very important to go through periods where you sound just rotten and you know it, and you have to persevere or give up. – Steve Lacy
The soprano has all those other instruments in it. It’s got the soprano song voice, flute, violin, clarinet, and tenor elements and can even approach the baritone in intensity. – Steve Lacy
I’ve been working on the soprano saxophone for 40 years, and the possibilities are astounding. It’s up to you, the only limit is the imagination. – Steve Lacy
