Harry Connick, Jr. Quotes

"It was horrific, it was really ugly. You're talking about tens of thousands of people – the elderly, infants, normal citizens, who were told, 'wait here we’ll come get you’ and nobody came. It's not like it's Haiti, this is the United States for crying out loud." - Harry Connick, Jr. (about New Orleans, following hurricane Katrina)

source: The Daily Telegraph (October 23, 2009)

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

"What has been America's most nurturing contribution to the culture of this planet so far? Many would say jazz. I, who love jazz, will say this instead: Alcoholics Anonymous." - Kurt Vonnegut

source: War Preparers' Anonymous, Essay in The Nation (January 7, 1984)

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

"Foreigners love us for our jazz. And they don't hate us for our purported liberty and justice for all. They hate us for our arrogance." - Kurt Vonnegut

source: A Man Without a Country

Gerald Early Quotes

"There are only three things that America will be remembered for 2000 years from now when they study this civilization: The Constitution, Jazz music, and Baseball. These are the 3 most beautiful things this culture's ever created." — Gerald Early

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

"And what gift of America to the rest of the world is actually most appreciated by the rest of the world? It is African American jazz and its offshoots. What is my definition of jazz? "Safe sex of the highest order." — Kurt Vonnegut

source: Armageddon in Retrospect

Art Blakey Quotes

"The people know more about [Jazz] in other countries than in America. America is the last country to know about anything, because we're too fat, we have too much of everything, you understand? And we do not listen." - Art Blakey

source: Interview with WUSS Radio (August 18, 1977)

Louis Armstrong Quotes

"It's getting almost so bad a colored man hasn't got any country." - Louis Armstrong

source: NY Times (published: September 23, 2007)

Miles Davis Quotes

"Americans don't like any form of art, man. All they like to do is make money. They don't like me, Sammy Davis, or anybody else. They don't like nothing. They just like Sammy because he can make 'em a lot of money." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Isadora Duncan Quotes

"It seems to me monstrous that anyone should believe that the jazz rhythm expresses America. Jazz rhythm expresses the primitive savage." - Isadora Duncan

Jon Huntsman Jr. Quotes

"I love music, I love all kinds of music, particularly jazz. Jazz is an extension of America. There's no other country in the world that could have produced jazz." - Jon Huntsman, Jr.

Federico Garcia Lorca Quotes

"The only things that the United States has given to the world are skyscrapers, jazz, and cocktails. That is all. And in Cuba, in our America, they make much better cocktails." - Federico Garcia Lorca

Norman Granz Quotes

"When I was doing jazz concerts in America, I would use the biggest names I could find." - Norman Granz

Tony Bennett Quotes

"It's America's classical music ... this becomes our tradition ... the bottom line of any country in the world is what did we contribute to the world? ... we contributed Louis Armstrong." - Tony Bennett

Woody Shaw Quotes

"The trouble with this country is that everything is new. We don't have any consideration for the past... Just because something is old, you don't just rip it down. You can renovate it instead of ripping it down and building something new." - Woody Shaw

Gerald Early Quotes

"I think there are only three things that America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music and baseball. They're the three most beautifully designed things this culture has ever produced." - Gerald Early, Historian.

George Russell Quotes

"If America has a future, Jazz has a future. The two are inseparable." - George Russell

Bart Simpson Quotes

"Ahhh... cartoons. America's only native art form. I don't count Jazz because it sucks." - Bart Simpson

Duke Ellington Quotes

"Put it this way: Jazz is a good barometer of freedom... in its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, Jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that man people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country." - Duke Ellington Quotes

Branford Marsalis Quotes

"You know, being America, being the land of “number ones", everyone wants to be a leader before they follow." - Branford Marsalis

Norman Granz Quotes

"Jazz is America's own. It is played and listened to by all peoples - in harmony together. Pigmentation differences have no place... as in genuine democracy, only performance counts." - Norman Granz