American Quotes

I have no idea what I'm doin'. I've never seen me.

I finally decided if I was going to make a living, I was gonna have to come to New York.

I do very few standards. Hardly any. Other people's tunes that I do are usually obscure tunes, for the most part, although I do a couple of Duke Ellington tunes that are well known.

I do some concerts. At the moment, I'm being helped a lot by a gig I play in London, which is Pizza Express.

I can't judge my own stuff. That's for others. But those are the three things that I admire.

I been getting good crowds. It only took 50 years.

But I got an audience that knows what I do. They usually show up, so I usually do pretty good.

At this point, I don't listen to other people too much. I'm not really that affected by anyone.

As far as I'm concerned, the essentials of jazz are: melodic improvisation, melodic invention, swing, and instrumental personality.

And Lennie Tristano I like a lot, I still like him.

All the classic jazz players all sang and a lot of 'em sang blues.

We played the same thing in Europe we played in the States.

The blues is the foundation, and it's got to carry the top. The other part of the scene, the rock 'n' roll and the jazz, are the walls of the blues.

So I cut out all the drinkin' and hangin' out and stuff like that early on.

Me being a skinny guy, I could crawl into the steel pit.

In the States, it takes you a lifetime just to get from Chicago's South Side to the West Side.

In the blues, it just takes so long for us to get recognized.

I want to play in a place people want to hear me.

I want people to recognize Luther Allison when I play.

I think I'm the most positive guy still going in my generation, and I'm out there to prove that.

I mean, look how many musicians have come through and played beside me, and I'm workin' and they're not.

I look in music magazines now and see things on Luther Allison, and my name's getting out there more, thanks to all the good people at Alligator Records and at my management company.

I have as much input to the blues; I just never got the chance, the opportunity or maybe the respect.

I had the qualifications, but I was not chosen.

I focused on how these people became how they were.

I don't want to be in some big beautiful place that nobody want me, because I play the blues.

But you know, I still had a dream of being able to go back home and tour.

But there was not a job that could say that Luther Allison didn't do his job.

But my big thing was always the blues.

But let's face it, I still have to look at my self and look at the things I've done down the stretch.