Gene Lees famous quotes

Audiences tend to get the performances they deserve...
-- Gene Lees

#Audience #Performances #Deserve

Despite his [Artie Shaw's] affectations of reclusiveness, he never tired of talking about himself, as countless long interviews reveal. I do not recall an anecdote he ever told me that was not in some way intended to convey a sense of his own superiority to everyone. . One wonders how a person of his character could produce such beauty.
-- Gene Lees

#Character #Tired #Talking

There is a gesture he has, a motion, that always reminds me of a great batter leaning into a hit. He has a way of throwing one foot forward, putting his head down a bit as he silently runs the valves, and then the cheeks bloom out in the way that has mystified his dentist for years, and he hits into the solo. When that foot goes forward like that, you know that John Birks Gillespie is no longer clowning. Stand back.
-- Gene Lees

#Running #Feet #Years

I have believed for many years that Oscar Peterson is not only the greatest pianist in jazz today, but the greatest it has ever known.
-- Gene Lees

#Years #Oscars #Today

As far as how much you listen to the audience, you listen to them when they really hate something.

I will not do festivals. The thought of an audience that big frightens the life out of me.

In the South, it is different, they have a audience that is literate.

I maintain couchsurfing and crowdsurfing are basically the same thing — you're falling into the audience and you're trusting each other.

I never considered myself a performance artist.

My take is that acting is acting. A performance is a performance. With performance capture, if you don't get the performance on the day, you can't enhance the performance.

We all have levels of performance.

I'd rather do my own performance than copy someone else's.

I've learned... that everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

All life deserves respect, dignity, and compassion. All life.