Jack Grassel Guitarist Extraordinaire

"But you as an artist... What I'm talking about is an artist has to be really together. Spirit-wise, body-wise, mind-wise. You have to be in the best conditon that you can be in. Or else you're no good to anybody. It's like a medical doctor telling you 'I can take care of your cold' and he's sneezing and coughing all over the place."

Milford Graves

"I smoked two packs a day from 15. I did a lot of blow, smoked a lot of grass and drank a lot of booze. You've got to live it man. I don't eat anything organic. Give me some butter! It's the blood-gas ratio that makes me tired. If I stoke up before the gig, as I'm doing now, I'll be fine. There's nothing wrong with my lungs."

Phil Woods in Downbeat Magazine

(referring to the corrosive effects of emphysema, which caught up to him in 2001, also when his prostate flared up and he had all his teeth extracted. He turned on a portable oxygen machine...inserted a tube in his nose and breathed deeply.) comment by Downbeat Magazine

"I want to discover a method so that if I want it to rain, it will start immediately to rain. If one of my friends is ill, I'd like to play a certain song and he'll be cured. When he'd be broke, I'd bring out a different song, and immediately he'd get all the money he needed. But what these pieces are, and what is the road to attain the knowledge of them, that I don't know. The true powers of music are still unknown. To be able to conrol them must be, I believe, the goal of every musician."

John Coltrane

"Fighting a war is the lowest form of human behavior. It's not intelligent. It's not constructive. It's devastating."

Tony Bennett

"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you don't feel any pain."

Bob Marley

"What I try to do everyday is figure out how to help somebody."

Hillary Clinton

"Imagine peace"

John Lennon

"It is curious how people go on believing that the musician knows less about what he is doing than those that judge him."

Darius Milhaud

"Reverse the proceedures in classical music and you have the ideal jazz education."

Paul Bley

"Bach's inventions need jazz musicians to execute them properly. Jazz is not an inferior music and jazz musicians are expected to have greater command of their instruments than classical players."

Lennie Tristano

"This country has been known for putting a lot of trash into the world, not just hip-hop."

Wynton Marsalis

"Every place you go should be better because you are there."

H.F. Johnson

"If you knew for sure that you had just one more year to live, what would you do?"

Hannah Pickett

"A truly valuable artist realizes the impossibility of his task and then continues to do it."
Keith Jarrett

"A roof, a crust of bread and an easel are all an artist needs."

Albert Pinkham Ryder

"There is a right and a wrong way to do everything. If you practice eight hours a day doing something the wrong way, you will become very good at doing it the wrong way."
Michael Jordan

" Repetition when practicing a musical instrument creates boredom. Boredom reduces motivation, efficiency and accomplishment."

Jack Grassel

"You don't have to learn this stuff, but you will have to compete with someone who did."

The great Ted Ashford (Jack's college music theory instructor) wrote this on the board at the beginning of the first class. (An experience like that can change a student's entire life in 30 seconds.) We all thank you Ted!!

" Be over prepared for what you are going to do"
Roger Ruggieri

"Your attention will give power to whatever it's focused on. Choose to focus it in a way that will move you positively forward."

Ralph Marsden

"This myth of "other-than-me" has been responsible for wars, the rape of the planet, and all forms and expressions of human injustice. After all, who in their right mind would harm another if they experienced that person as part of themselves?"

Russell E. DiCarlo

"...If the majority of our population is of a beer, brat, and baseball mentality, we will never be a world-class city, no matter what kind of edifices we build,"

Jerry Grillo (commenting on Milwaukee building a new baseball stadium with a sales tax on goods purchased by all people regardless of them being baseball fans or not, rich or poor.)

"Serious music without humor isn't serious enough."

Lucas Foss

"?lamron eb yhw"

Anna Polly Wilfer 1916-2004 (This is engraved beneath her picture on her grave stone. )

"The whole world sees that the United States has more gun violence than other countries because we have more guns and are willing to sell them to madmen who want to kill people."

Adam Gopnik, (The New Yorker Magazine, April 30, 2007)

"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne'er-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work."

Ronald Reagan, (From the just published REAGAN DIARIES . The entry is dated May 17, 1986.)

"We no longer understand or control our technology."

David Bowie (1982)

"Life would be so wonderful if we only knew what to do with it."

Greta Garbo