Jan Hammer quotes:

Growing up, I was very much interested in jazz music.

The passion and spontaneity in music is all gone.

I've been doing a lot of music for films and television for quite a few years.

I spent well over a year on the road with Sarah Vaughn. That was amazing.

It was very hard to get any records, so the only source for us to really hear what was happening was listening to the Voice of America. We would be taping all the broadcast and then sharing the tapes and talking about it.

The problem that I have is with the music business. For some reason it seems almost impossible to get anything, any music, released which includes improvisation or soloing.

Emotions are the fuel to really move you along - that's the only way you can create music. If you don't feel any emotions, it's not going to happen.

You never know what you find once you really get going.

Everything from now on will be done online - physical music media like the CD are dead in the water.

My mother is a singer, still performs today; she's a jazz singer.

Still for fun, I play the drums, but I don't do much recording with them.