Joe Pass on jazz improvisation, 1994

You have a form, but you have accumulated a great deal of ideas or themes and melodies that you have heard, and you can put them in. They're like having a pocketful of music, or a mindful. If you have a good night, they come; if you have a bad night, they don't come. But you have this form that you work with.

I think the only person who's totally creative is a guy who has never played before. He goes boomp [makes a playing motion], and that's creative, because what does he know? Once he's learned the C chord, he's finished creating.

From a roundtable interview with Joe Pass, Pepe Romero, Paco Peña, and Leo Kottke, for Acoustic Guitar magazine

Greg Brown on the songwriting well, 2000

It’s such a subconscious thing. It’s like this little song part of you fills up over time. It’s like a well, and then you just put your dipper in and dip it out. When you’re a songwriter, at least a songwriter like me, you have to work hard on your craft--if you hear something, you want to be able to figure out how to do it. But the songs themselves, I don’t know where they come from or where they’re going or why they picked me. They really are presents, and your job is to receive them and pass them on.

From the book The Complete Singer-Songwriter: A Troubadour's Guide to Writing, Performing, Recording, and Business

As I write I'm spinning Greg Brown's new CD The Evening Call (release date August 8). Brown's vocals sound very emotionally charged, in a deep gospel vein, at times bringing to mind Van Morrison...

Music business guide

If you had to choose one guide to the thickets of the music business, Donald S. Passman's All You Need to Know About the Music Business (Simon and Schuster) actually comes close to living up to its title. An authoritative and accessible guide that's surprisingly readable--even entertaining. Check it out at Amazon or Powells.

For more links and tools, see my Songwriting Toolbox page.

Paul Simon on his early days in England, 1993

I first went over in 1963, briefly, but I lived in England for most of '64 and '65. The English folk scene was a big influence on my playing. Davey Graham was one of the guys who influenced everybody--he influenced Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, who were probably the leading blues folk players. And Martin Carthy was probably the best player, the most musical of the players. That arrangement of "Scarborough Fair" is sort of how I remembered how he did it. Everybody did "Scarborough Fair," and everybody did "She Moved through the Fair"--those were two really big songs.

From the book Rock Troubadours.

Check out clips and a few full tracks from Surprise, Paul Simon's new collaboration with Brian Eno, at paulsimon.com.

Spins: Corinne Bailey Rae

This young soul-jazz singer from the U.K. released her self-titled debut Stateside on Capitol earlier this year. Check out the performances on the VH-1 "You Oughta Know" page (under the heading "Watch 'Em")--in particular the live video of "Like a Star." Sweet jazzy acoustic guitar along with the lovely vocals...

And here is her home page.

Richie Havens on the DIY music business, 2002

You can actually sell or give or share your music with the whole world. You don’t have to have the middleman. Availability has always been the trick gate that record companies have stood in front of. For most musicians, it’s like, “You can only get through this gate through me.” So then it means, “You have to jump through this hoop first, and then I’ll let you go in.” You don’t really have to go through that anymore. You can make your own Web site and get your music out there. And a lot of people are doing it, and much to their surprise, doing it well. It comes down to this: if the music is good and it has something to say and it has something to offer a listener, then that listener has the wonderful ability to make that choice. He wants it, he gets it.

I can tell you for a fact that in the 1960s, for every hit song or every hit group that made an album, I probably would much rather have the demo they gave the company than the album the company made. It’s still the same. Make your own music. Get the atmosphere around that song that you want. And the people will hear it and will feel it.

From the book The Complete Singer-Songwriter: A Troubadour's Guide to Writing, Performing, Recording, and Business

More on Richie Havens.