Herbie Mann Quotes

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Herbie Mann

Profession : Musician

Birth : April 16, 1930

But when I first got cancer, after the initial shock and the fear and paranoia and crying and all that goes with cancer - that word means to most people ultimate death - I decided to see what I could do to take that negative and use it in a positive way.

Herbie Mann

Why do you have to retire at 65? Why can't you start at 70? You know, like wine. Why can't music be that way? My new band, we're playing stuff that's never been done before.

Herbie Mann

I had sat in one day in Central Park with Bonnie and Delaney, and Duane was playing with them, so I asked if he wanted to work on an album. You never had to say to him how to play the guitar.

Herbie Mann

Being stubborn has helped, being selfish is not a bad thing.

Herbie Mann

For me Brazilian music is the perfect mix of melody and rhythm. It just bubbles rhythmically. If I had to pick just one music style to play if would be Brazilian.

Herbie Mann

I loved the Brazilian music I played. But this is finally me. For the first time I think it's really me.

Herbie Mann

Being selfish to me means that you have to look out for yourself and you don't have to sacrifice.

Herbie Mann

By the time I'm 90, I hope to have it together.

Herbie Mann

I always say, if you keep your head in the sand, you don't know where the kick's coming from.

Herbie Mann

I was raised in Brooklyn, and I lived there for 59 years.

Herbie Mann

If you want to play somebody's music, you'd better go into his house.

Herbie Mann

Music allows the great opportunity to play with people who turned you on and you love.

Herbie Mann

My ego is controlled enough that I don't have to be the focus.

Herbie Mann

My father's father came from Russia; my mother came from Romania.

Herbie Mann

My youngest son, who is now the drummer in my band, lives in Brooklyn. My oldest son is about to move out to California, and my daughters are both out of town.

Herbie Mann

One of the advantages of not having a record contract is that you can make your own mistakes, you don't need somebody else to organize them for you.

Herbie Mann

The music we're playing now is based on my heritage, which is Russian, Romanian and Hungarian.

Herbie Mann

The reality is that what you find out is that your head is the medicine. If your head is not in the right place and you don't think positively, all the medicine technology in the world is not going to work.

Herbie Mann

Think about it: Look at the strides of awareness and treatment and tests that women have had with breast cancer, that the gay community has had with AIDS, because they're active and they talk about it.

Herbie Mann

To most jazz critics I was basically Kenny G.

Herbie Mann