
On female guitarists, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8EKTGlQp-c, 2016
In SPIN (December 1990). p. 30, and in many other sources https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=%22play+anything+on+a+horn%22+miles+davis#hl=en&q=%22don%27t+play+what%27s+there%22+not+davis&tbm=bks, but I can't find the original one.
1990s
On female guitarists, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8EKTGlQp-c, 2016
Good Morning Blues : The Autobiography of Count Basie (1985) by Count Basie and Albert Murray
“Play is always voluntary. What might otherwise be play is work if it's forced. This is axiomatic.”
The Abolition of Work (1985)
“Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.”
As quoted in Words of Wisdom (1990) edited by William Safire and Leonard Safir, p. 435
Variant: What we play is life.
Source: Louis Armstrong, in His Own Words: Selected Writings
“When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all.”