Les Baxter Quotes

Any good music must be an innovation.
Les Baxter

I aim my arrangements at what will fit and colorfully frame the song in the best way possible.
Les Baxter

I did the Broadway album unfortunately in a year when there were no hits.
Les Baxter

I don't know what the problem with Capitol is. Some one's got to wake 'em up. Prod 'em a little bit.
Les Baxter

I don't think the record company is aware of it. Because they just bury my albums and don't release them.
Les Baxter

I don't try to make 15 musicians sound like two each.
Les Baxter

I love doing concert music.
Les Baxter

I was working all the time I was in college. I was working so much that I could hardly do my college work.
Les Baxter

I write emotional music.
Les Baxter

I'm not an intellectual composer.
Les Baxter

I've been down there 6 times and there's nothing like Brazilian percussion.
Les Baxter

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.
Les Baxter

In a sense, a hit belongs to the person who made it popular, but if a tune is good enough to attain tremendous success, then it certainly deserves more than one version, one treatment, one approach.
Les Baxter

Regardless of who originally made it popular, any hit song becomes a challenge to the ingenuity and imagination of other musicians and performers.
Les Baxter

That was when the Spanish came in and conquered the Aztecs. I thought that was a clever thing.
Les Baxter

Under my contract with Capitol, I have complete freedom to do just about anything I want in my own way.
Les Baxter

Well, that's the secret of commerciality, a simple style and you stick with it.
Les Baxter

When I want 30 musicians in the orchestra, I get 30.
Les Baxter

You know, they wanted to do a Broadway album and every show was kind of a bomb. There was no music at all.
Les Baxter