Paul Smoker Quotes

"I don't really have a career as a jazz musician. I don't really have a career as a classical musician. I don't really have a career as a college professor, and yet I did all those things and I did them well. I put out some records in the 1980's and 1990's that changed the way some trumpet players played." - Paul Smoker

source: Interview with Ron Netsky / Rochester City Newspaper (June 22, 2010)

Paul Smoker Quotes

"I use a lot of double-tonguing [using the tongue to control airflow]; that allows me to play as fast as if I was slurring, but with clean articulation on every note." - Paul Smoker

source: Interview with Ron Netsky / Rochester City Newspaper (June 22, 2010)

Paul Smoker Quotes

"There was a time, in my early 20s, when I picked up the trumpet and said, ‘I've got to change what I'm doing.' I wasn't putting enough air through the horn. The tone I wanted was bigger than what I had. I was out of control." - Paul Smoker

source: Interview with Ron Netsky / Rochester City Newspaper (June 22, 2010)

Ella Fitzgerald Quotes

"Nobody else even approaches the trumpet like [Sweets Edison] does: Never too much and always plenty. He's the greatest trumpet player to play along with singers. He exactly knows how to play with you, how to answer you about what you just sang … On top of that, he has some great sense of humor, both as a musician and as a man. Every time I see him, I’m laughing so much. Sweets is impeccable and incomparable." - Ella Fitzgerald

Sweets Edison Quotes

"Oh yes sure (I practice)! Even more than 10 years ago. The older you get, the more difficult you have to keep your level at the top of your game. Trumpet is a very difficult instrument." - Sweets Edison

Freddie Hubbard Quotes

"A very few musicians passed across all decades. In terms of trumpet playing, Louis Armstrong does it of course but Sweets [Edison] is right up there too. He is unique, in every sense of the term." - Freddie Hubbard

Wynton Marsalis Quotes

"The originality of Sweets [Edison's] sound lay not only in his rhythmic choices, but also in a direct, full tonal quality. So when the [Count] Basie band broke up in 1950, he was well-equipped to strike out on his own and go further in his musical adventures. Still today, he inspires me so much and all my colleagues I assume". - Wynton Marsalis

Dizzy Gillespie Quotes

"Many critics always saw and heard that my style comes from Roy Eldridge, which is true. But for many things, not only how to play the trumpet but the way to choose the notes, how to play them and how to phrase all of them, I took that from Sweets [Edison]. He really brought something new to the trumpet." - Dizzy Gillespie

Clark Terry Quotes

"[Sweets Edison] was one of the greatest stylists in Jazz of all time. And on top of that, when you listen to him, you say 'yes, that's Sweets' and you automatically smile. This is really unique. He changed the way how to play this instrument." - Clark Terry

Miles Davis Quotes

"I would never try and play like Harry James, because I don't like his tone — for me. It's just white. You know what I mean? He has what we black trumpet players call a white sound. But it's for white music ... I can tell a white trumpet player, just listening to a record. There'll be something he'll do that'll let me know that he's white." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"You want to know how I started playing trumpet? My father bought me one, and I studied the trumpet. And everybody I heard that I liked, I picked up things from." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Wynton Marsalis Quotes

"Trumpet players are just belligerant, and cocky, and you know, just hard-headed." - Wynton Marsalis

Freddie Hubbard Quotes

"Well, my sister played trumpet. Can you imagine having a sister blowing the trumpet around the house? And my brother, he played piano. Everybody was playing some kind of music, so it was natural for me to get into it." - Freddie Hubbard

Wynton Marsalis Quotes

"The nerves are a problem on trumpet, because when you mess up everyone can hear it. Just remember most people are too polite to say anything about it. That should calm your nerves." - Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis Quotes

"I got my first trumpet when I was six years old, from Al Hirt. My father was playing in Al Hirt's band at that time." - Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis Quotes

"I didn't want to get that ring around my lips from practicing the trumpet, because I thought the girls wouldn't like me. So I never practiced." - Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis Quotes

"Trumpet players see each other, and it's like we're getting ready to square off or get into a fight or something." - Wynton Marsalis