Trombone Shorty Quotes

"As I was a kid, I had a bunch of musicians, they always told me that I should listen to all styles of music and try to play all styles and be authentic at it, if I can, because you never know who's gonna call you. This was coming from fellow horn players who would get the call to play with different types of people. Since I was a kid, that was just something I was always interested in." - Trombone Shorty

source: Interview with NPR (May 2, 2010)

Trombone Shorty Quotes

"As soon as I was born, my mom said I was humming 'When the Saints Go Marching In,' or something like that, you know? It's in the family. And in that neighborhood [Treme, in New Orleans], I think everybody in the neighborhood has some type of musical influence, even if they don't play instruments or anything. It's the way they talk to you, the way they say your name — it's all musical." - Trombone Shorty

source: Interview with NPR (May 2, 2010)

Harry Connick, Jr. Quotes

"It was a house full of rules. You couldn't walk around the house barefoot. Whenever anyone older than you came into the room, you stood up. You didn't speak until you were spoken to, you had to say, Sir or Ma'm." - Harry Connick, Jr.

source: The Daily Telegraph (October 23, 2009)

Michael Buble Quotes

"I was about a ten year overnight success. From 16 through 26 I moved throughout Canada and the U.S., and I did everything from theater to singing in restaurants or shopping malls, or basically anything that would help me to have that break, or take a step, or learn my craft, and I lived on my potential every day for ten years." - Michael Buble

source: Interview with Inside Thirteen (March 1, 2010)

Art Pepper Quotes

"I guess it's like James Joyce when he was a kid, you know. He hung out with all the great writers of the day, and he was a little kid, like, with tennis shoes on, and they said 'Look at this lame!' They didn't use those words in those days. They said 'God, here comes this nut.' And he told them, 'I'm great!' And he sat with them, and he loved to be with them, and it ended up that he was great." — Art Pepper

Pat Metheny Quotes

"..my older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in various classical situations and he was already an amazing talent. The comparisons of being his little brother and also playing the trumpet -- and, I have to add, I was not a naturally gifted trumpet player -- didn't feel that good. I thought my name was "Mike Metheny's little brother." - Pat Metheny

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"The active jazz scene bled into what became the "Philadelphia era" and the "national era" of soul music, which hit their peak right around the time I was born -- 1972. Billy Paul had his first major hit with “Me & Mrs. Jones.” The O'Jays had “Back Stabbers.” Man, there was lots of stuff goin’ on. Hal Melvin and the Blue Notes, with a young Teddy Pendergrass as their lead singer. So, that went all the way through the ‘70s. Then, toward the late ‘70s, Grover Washington started getting gold records, and the jazz scene resurfaced in Philly. There was always lots of stuff going on. That was a really great place to grow up. In the early ‘80s, when the Philadelphia “international” scene started to die out, Grover became the national hero of Philadelphia. Then Pieces of a Dream came out. They emanated out of Grover’s band. They really were hot in the early ‘80s. By the time I graduated from high school, little did I know that half of the graduating class was going to turn out to be superstars -- Boyz II Men; Ahmir Thompson, who’s better known to the hip-hop world as ?uestlove -- he runs the group called the Roots; organist Joey De Francesco, my good buddy; guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel; and Amel Larrieux, who used to sing with Groove Theory, who now has her own thing happening in the R&B world. There was so much stuff going on in Philly growing up." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"Mom did not want me to have anything to do with playing music. Being from a middle-class Black family in that particular era, everybody wanted you to have a profession -- a doctor, a lawyer, and so forth. So she sent me to school to study medicine." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"I grew up learning this stuff on the streets of New York. My brother and I used to play in the subway for money." - Don Alias

source:digitalinterviews.com

Chick Corea Quotes

"My dad was all about music. He was a musician, leading a band when I was born. His band was active all through the 40s. He'd started it in the late 20s and 30s. According to the scrapbook, his band was doing quite well around the Boston area. During the Depression they were on radio. It was a jazz-oriented band. He was a trumpet player, and he wrote and arranged for the band. He taught me how to play the piano and read music, and taught me what he knew of standard tunes and so forth. It was a fantastic way to come up in music." - Chick Corea

source: digitalinterviews.com

Joe Pass Quotes

"I grew up playing the guitar. I started when I was nine, and by the time I was nine and a half or ten, I was doing seven or eight hours' practice every day. I did two hours' practice at six o'clock in the morning before I went to school, and another two hours as soon as I got home from school in the afternoon. Then I did four hours at night before I went to bed. I did that until I was fourteen or fifteen." - Joe Pass

source: Interview with Guitar Magazine (June, 1974)

Benny Goodman Quotes

"We always had a Victrola in our home. It was hand-wound, and we had all sorts of records to go with it. Caruso and people like that—but also Ted Lewis, who was a big thing in those days, and even the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. [My father] discovered that the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue, not much more than a mile from where we lived, would lend instruments to youngsters and supply them with lessons, so they could play in the band at the synagogue. So we all went down, and my brother Harry, who was about twelve and the biggest of us, got a tuba. Freddy, who was a year older than I was, got a trumpet, and I wound up with the clarinet." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Bunk Johnson Quotes

"A barrel house was just a piano in a hall. There was always a piano player working. When I was a kid, I'd go into a barrel house and play 'long with them piano players 'til early in the mornin'. We used to play nuthin' but the blues." - Bunk Johnson

source: 'Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz As Told by the Men Who Made It' (Nat Shapiro, First published 1966)

Danny Barker Quotes

"One of my pleasantest memories as a kid growing up in New Orleans was how a bunch of us kids, playing, would suddenly hear sounds. It was like a phenomenon, like the Aurora Borealis -- maybe. The sounds of men playing would be so clear, but we wouldn't be sure where they were coming from. So we'd start trotting, start running-- 'It's this way! It's this way!' -- And sometimes, after running for a while, you'd find you'd be nowhere near that music. But that music could come on you any time like that. The city was full of the sounds of music." - Danny Barker

source: 'Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz As Told by the Men Who Made It' (Nat Shapiro, First published 1966)

Andy Summers Quotes

"I was totally into jazz in my teens." - Andy Summers (of 'The Police')

Bobby McFerrin Quotes

"I'd actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet." - Bobby McFerrin

Etta James Quotes

"My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!" - Etta James

Wyclef Jean Quotes

"I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences." - Wyclef Jean

Bobby McFerrin Quotes

"Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time." - Bobby McFerrin

Herbie Hancock Quotes

"When I was in my early teens, I remember coming to the conclusion that your life never ends." - Herbie Hancock