Ronnie Laws Quotes

"I think it's a regional thing; coming from the part of the country that I grew up in, and I'm not really familiar with where Grover is originally from (Buffalo, NY). Traditionally, there's always been a distinctive sound associated with Texas horn players, saxophone players in particular. And so, I think the difference is really in the concept and in approaching the instrument; I think Grover has always had more of like a smooth quality in his sound, and my sound's always been a little more slightly hard-edged."
Ronnie Laws

"The programming has a lot to be desired. It's just very, very...it's just disheartening. Even the artists that they are perpetrating on the public under the disguise of "jazz" or "smooth" or whatever you want to call it, "smooth jazz," "hard jazz," I don't know, but, it's not representative of the music historically." "And a lot of people say, 'Well, Ronnie, how can you say that? Because your music is not in the purist form of jazz.' And that's not true. Because if you look at the elements that I play, even though I did employ different elements of funk, or whatever, the components of jazz were always there, the improvisational aspects of it, the hard edge, all of that, all of those elements were in there. At least it was musically challenging to listen to."
Ronnie Laws