Top quotes by Wynton Marsalis

I feel that for years of teaching in the country and reading criticism in books, I feel like the things most needed in our culture are the understanding of the meanings of our music. We haven't done that good of job teaching our kids what our music means or how we developed our taste in music that reminds us and teaches us who we are. Votes: 23

I have absolutely no idea what my generation did to enrich our democracy. We dropped the ball. We entered a period of complacency and closed our eyes to the public corruption of our democracy. Votes: 23

I'm not a person who writes really abstract things with oblique references. I look at abstraction like I look at condiments. Give me some Tabasco sauce, some ketchup, some mayonnaise. I love all of that. Put it on a trumpet. I've just got to have the ketchup and Tabasco sauce. That's my attitude about musical philosophy. Votes: 22

Everything comes out in blues music: joy, pain, struggle. Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance. It's about a man and a woman. So the pain and the struggle in the blues is that universal pain that comes from having your heart broken. Most blues songs are not about social statements. Votes: 19

The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel. Votes: 19

There's always the cliche of the choir shouting and clapping. OK, you have to do that, but there's also introspective parts, parts where you just follow someone that's preaching. There's lots of different emotions and moods that a service requires. Votes: 17

I believed in studying just because I knew education was a privilege. It was the discipline of study, to get into the habit of doing something that you don't want to do. Votes: 16

When I auditioned for my high school band the band director was excited because my father was known to be a great musician. When he heard me, he said 'Are you sure you're Ellis's son?' Votes: 15

My daddy thought - no, he expected - that my brothers and I and our generation would make the world a better place. He was correct in his belief because he had lived in an America of continual social progress, depression followed by prosperity, segregation by integration, and so on. Votes: 14

The main three components are the blues, improvisation - which is some kind of element that people are trying to make it up - and swing, which means even though they're making up music, they're trying to make it up together. It feels great, like you're having a great conversation with somebody. Votes: 14

Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12-bar form that's played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic vocabulary that's been used by rock n' roll. It's related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition. Votes: 14

My mother always took my brothers and me to music lessons. There were six children. Our parents attended our concerts and encouraged us to study and enjoy many different types of music. Votes: 14

There is an idea that a mind is wasted on the arts unless it makes you good in math or science. There is some evidence that the arts might help you in math and science. Votes: 13

Many a revolution started with the actions of a few. Only 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. A few hanging together can lead a nation to change. Votes: 12

Through first-class education, a generation marches down the long uncertain road of the future with confidence. Votes: 12

Jazz celebrates older generations and not just the youth movement. When you 'sell' only to people of a certain age, you get cut off from the main body of experience. Votes: 10

I sounded like myself. People be saying I sound like Miles or Clifford Brown. Votes: 10

Don't worry about what others say about your music. Pursue whatever you are hearing... but if everybody really hates your music maybe you could try some different approaches. Votes: 9

In the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra we play such a diversity of music, with 10 arrangers in the band, we don't really worry about whether it's contemporary or not. Votes: 8

Duke Ellington always had a style: original, clean with interesting color combinations. He had an artist's eye. Votes: 8

When you create change with your point of view, you have to be ready for what comes with that. Votes: 7

The bandstand is a sacred place. Votes: 6

When did we begin to lose faith in our ability to effect change? Votes: 6

The majority of the high schools and the public schools in N.Y.C. don't even have band programs. Hip-hop in a lot of ways is an outgrowth of a lack of instruments and a desire to play music, so we can't really fault the kids for that. Votes: 5

I try to find the core values that are so fundamental that they transcend ethnic identity. That doesn't mean I run from it. I embrace African-American culture and I love it and embrace it, but it is a part of a human identity. So I'm always trying to make a larger human statement. Votes: 5

If you are serious about American culture and you are serious about Afro-American culture, you are in a lot of pain. You are not - you are not smiling about it. Votes: 4

I'm just lucky to have the type of friends and musicians and people dedicated to my music that I do. Votes: 3

I grew up in the South, and our way of dealing with each other was teasing, ribbing, making fun and scrapping in the street. Criticism doesn't bother me so much. It actually made me, when I was younger, more aggressive. But you get into middle age, and you lose interest in that stuff. It's not serious. Votes: 2

The musicians I respected were much older than me. I expected them to cut my head, and they did. Votes: 1

The history of jazz lets us know that this period in our history is not the only period we've come through together. If we truly understood the history of our national arts, we'd know that we have mutual aspirations, a shared history, in good times and bad. Votes: 1

Jazz music creates so many phenomenal figures. Votes: 0

The heart of a music is its rhythm. The heart of rhythm section music is the rhythm. Votes: 0

There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't improvising. Votes: 0

What, other than injustice, could be the reason that the displaced citizens of New Orleans cannot be accommodated by the richest nation in the world? Votes: 0

I think that the blues is in everything, so it's not possible to neglect it. You hear somebody go 'Ooh ooh oooh,' and that's the blues. You hear a rock n' roll song. That's the blues. Somebody playing a guitar solo? They're playing the blues. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I almost never watch TV, except for '60 Minutes' and pro football. I love Drew Brees, the Manning brothers and the Steelers' linebackers. Votes: 0

I never minded giving my opinions. They are just opinions, and I had studied music and I had strong feelings. I was happy for my opinions to join all the other opinions. But you have to be prepared for what comes back, especially if you don't agree with the dominant mythology. Votes: 0

My thing is, once you start to put a backbeat on your music or something that has a machine in it, you have popularity, but you lose the flexibility. And you lose a richness. Votes: 0

What I really have in my head, my imagination, my understanding of music, I never really get that out. Votes: 0

It's important to address young people in the reopening of New Orleans. In rebuilding, let's revisit the potential of American democracy and American glory. Votes: 0

What I've learned how to do as I've gotten older is to take all of the information that I have, and push it aside, and try to distill each song into an emotional theme. The hardest thing that I've ever had to learn how to do in playing music is use the sound of my instrument to create an emotional effect. Votes: 0

People have taken time out of their day and spent their money to come sit down at a concert. And it's jazz music-it's not easy for them to get to it. I don't want them ever to feel that I'm taking their presence lightly. Votes: 0

Jazz music is America's past and its potential, summed up and sanctified and accessible to anybody who learns to listen to, feel, and understand it. The music can connect us to our earlier selves and to our better selves-to-come. It can remind us of where we fit on the time line of human achievement, an ultimate value of art. Votes: 0

I dress up a certain way because I respect the music. Votes: 0

There are forces all around you who wish to exploit division, rob you of your freedom, and tell you what to think. But young folks can rekindle the weary spirit of a slumbering nation. Votes: 0

Whenever you face a man who's playing your instrument, there's a competition. Votes: 0

The young very seldom lead anything in our country today. It's been quite some time since a younger generation pushed an older one to a higher standard. Votes: 0

If you didn't have the amalgam of Blacks and African-type sensibility and European sensibility, you wouldn't have jazz. Even in the negative and in the positive ways - if there was no slavery and the abolition of slavery, there would be no jazz. Votes: 0

It was Dr. King's tireless activism that fostered our modern way of relating to one another. Votes: 0

To say that the Afro American created jazz doesn't mean anything bad about Anglo Americans, and I always teach my younger jazz musicians that at this point the entirety of the American tradition is your heritage, and you need to know it. Votes: 0

When I did the Abyssinian mass, I went through the whole history of the church music and the gospel music, even with the Anglo American hymns, the Afro American hymns, the spirituals and how it developed, up to Thomas Dorsey and the Dixie Hummingbirds, going through the history of the music, jazz musicians. Votes: 0

I'll write down and catalogue all the different devices that are Americana to me, and I try to have a historic depth and breadth and also the things that we do in our time, the type of vamps and chants, things that are available to us. Votes: 0

The first jazz musician was a trumpeter, Buddy Bolden, and the last will be a trumpeter, the archangel Gabriel. Votes: 0

The fact that we are culturally ignorant and we don't know what our heritage is, the price that we pay is that we act outside of ourselves almost all the time. We make very bad decisions how we deal with other people and their culture. Votes: 0

I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play. Votes: 0

When you study our greatest artists, you will find that they give us a key to understand how to deal with each other, and that our bloodlines are intertwined. It's not hyphenated America. That there is an America, and it is expressed in those arts. It gives us a key to figure out how to negotiate with each other, and it tells us actually who we are. Votes: 0

Everything comes out in blues music: joy , pain , struggle . Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel, listening to it. Votes: 0

Commercialism that has absolutely no relationship to quality whatsoever, only quantitative assessment of a thing. Votes: 0

I always like to play very contemporary concepts of swing right next to New Orleans music because it highlights continuum. Votes: 0

You can reach a situation where things of intelligence and refinement and culture can be considered elite, and things that are crass and ignorant can be considered to be real and of the people. And when you begin to have the mass of populus striving for something that's not worth striving for, then tremendous amounts of energy go into...the maintenance of that which is worthless. Votes: 0

It's really not a stretch. The checks and balances are the same. The drums are the executive branch. The jazz orchestra is the legislative branch. Logic and reason are like jazz solos. The bass player is the judicial branch. One our greatest ever is Milt Hinton, and his nickname is "The Judge." Votes: 0

I play piano and drums very poorly and French horn and tuba all equally as bad. Votes: 0

How great musicians demonstrate a mutual respect and trust on the bandstand can alter your outlook on the world and enrich every aspect of your life, understanding what it means to be a global citizen in the most modern sense. Votes: 0

Many of our greatest musicians abandoned all of their aesthetic objectives to try to become pertinent. And, at the end of the day, they never became pop stars. I counter stated that very strongly, and I continue to do that. Votes: 0

Blues is like the roux in a gumbo. People ask me if jazz always has the blues in it. I say, if it sounds good it does. Votes: 0

The first time I ever played the trumpet in public, I played the Marine Hymn. I sounded terrible. Votes: 0

It's like we're suffering from an identity crisis, and that identity is in our arts and the fact that we don't find it chief amongst our agendas to teach our kids who we are as a nation and the battles we've had on this ground and how they've been successfully resolved. We can't enjoy the fruits of the labor of our ancestors. Votes: 0

I feel like a lot of the fundamental material, I've assimilated. So now the question is: Am I going to really get into my spiritual inheritance of music and really develop my abilities? Votes: 0

You need a team. You need people to push you. You need opponents. Votes: 0

Benny Goodman's band was integrated before baseball. Even before it was physically integrated, music was integrated. Everyone listened to Armstrong and Ellington. The 20s was called the Jazz Age. It's part of being American. Votes: 0

In Jazz, improvisation isn't a matter of just making any ol' thing up. Jazz, like any language, has its own grammer and vocabulary. There's no right or wrong, just some choices that are better than others. Votes: 0

Jazz music is the power of now. There is no script. It's conversation. The emotion is given to you by musicians as they make split-second decisions to fulfill what they feel the moment requires. Votes: 0

Jazz music is the power of now. Votes: 0

Grace Kelly plays with intelligence, wit and feeling. She has a great amount of natural ability and the ability to adapt. That is the hallmark of a first-class jazz musician. Votes: 0

The people are not coming because of me. They didn't come before me. It's because of a lack of education and understanding, so it makes me more motivated. It's like my mother said about having an artistic child - she learned more from him and he gets more attention and more of the love, not less. Votes: 0

New Orleans had a great tradition of celebration. Opera, military marching bands, folk music, the blues, different types of church music, ragtime, echoes of traditional African drumming, and all of the dance styles that went with this music could be heard and seen throughout the city. When all of these kinds of music blended into one, jazz was born. Votes: 0

For Black people, we're one of the only groups of people that for some reason to express love of yourself, in some ways, is misconstrued as a dislike for someone else. Votes: 0

My older brother and myself always played together in bands, but we never knew we would be professional musicians. Votes: 0

Swing is extreme coordination. It's a maintaining balance, equilibrium. It's about executing very difficult rhythms with a panache and a feeling in the context of very strict time. So, everything about the swing is about some guideline and some grid and the elegant way that you negotiate your way through that grid. Votes: 0

Maybe the preoccupation with technological progress has overshadowed our concern with human progress. Votes: 0

I travel up and down the country and I've been all around the middle of America for many years. Middle America is not one big mass of people with a proverbial beer in its hand, keeping the country down. That is not my experience of it and I don't labor under that misconception. And we have a long tradition of coming together through music in our country. Votes: 0

Jazz is not just 'Well, man, this is what I feel like playing.' It's a very structured thing that comes down from a tradition and requires a lot of thought and study. Votes: 0

Music is always for the listener, but the first listener is always the musician Votes: 0

My daddy expected that my brothers and I and our generation would make the world a better place. He had lived in an America of continual social progress. Votes: 0

And that's the soulful thing about playing: you offer something to somebody. You don't know if they'll like it, but you offer it. Votes: 0

When it comes to songs and music, yeah, people love to sing and dance and play music and tunes, and that stream of consciousness that exists in music, nobody knows where that comes from. Votes: 0

What takes its place is very dry education. And the tools that actually can teach you - singing and playing, learning how to participate with other people, spiritual richness - are replaced with a big emphasis on how to memorize things. That's such an incomplete education. Survival of the fittest used to mean being bigger and stronger. Votes: 0

Young kids are always singing and painting. When you get to that second and third grade level, you're supposed to put all that aside. Votes: 0

Trumpet players see each other, and it's like we're getting ready to square off or get into a fight or something. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I think that virtuosity is the first sign of morality in a musician. It means you're serious enough to practice. Votes: 0

We looked up to our father. He still is much greater than us. Votes: 0

Through improvisation, jazz teaches you about yourself. And through swing, it teaches you that other people are individuals too. It teaches you how to coordinate with them. Votes: 0

My father is a jazz musician, so I grew up hearing jazz. My parents loved it, but I didn't like it. It went on for too long. Yes, I had certain teachers that really inspired me, like Danny Barker, and John Longo. And I had no idea that I would have any impact on jazz. Votes: 0

As a jazz musician, you have individual power to create the sound. You also have a responsibility to function in the context of other people who have that power also. Votes: 0

Musicians like to converse. There's always interesting conversation with musicians - with classical musicians, with jazz musicians, musicians in general. Votes: 0

We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation. Votes: 0

When I was 12, I began listening to John Coltrane and I developed a love for jazz, which I still have more and more each year. Votes: 0

Ethics are more important than laws. Votes: 0

Thank the good Lord for a job. Votes: 0

I always read all these books about the slaves. My mother is very educated. My father would talk to us like we were grown men. We never knew what he was talking about half the time. Votes: 0

My schedule is always tight. But I like to have the pressure of having to finish doing something; it gives me an added edge. Votes: 0

I'm not afraid of you being yourself. That's America. Votes: 0

I generally work right up to when I have to do something - I'm always doing a lot. Votes: 0

When people dress well, they play well. Votes: 0

The rebuilding of New Orleans is an important point in the history of the United States. Votes: 0

Generally, when I wake up in the morning I set out a series of problems for myself and I write them down, and when I'm sleeping, my mind solves the problems. When I wake up in the morning, I have more clarity on the issue. Votes: 0

A beat is a moment in the life a groove. Votes: 0

Art is a luxury. It's not necessary for you to - you can work your job and you can make some money and never know who Walt Whitman was, and never read a poem. Votes: 0

As long as there is democracy, there will be people wanting to play jazz because nothing else will ever so perfectly capture the democratic process in sound. Jazz means working things out musically with other people. You have to listen to other musicians and play with them even if you don't agree with what they're playing. It teaches you the very opposite of racism and anti-Semitism. It teaches you that the world is big enough to accommodate us all. Votes: 0

As you get older - for example, in our band we have members of our orchestra, like Carlos Enriquez and Ali Jackson and Walter Blanning. I taught them when they were in high school, and now they teach me.I'll regularly call Ali and say, "Man, can you break this rhythm down for me?" Or Carlos was actually our music director in Cuba, and he's been instrumental in a lot of my education, and I started to develop a saying with them, because they tease me all the time - you get older, you have that familiar relationship - I say, "You have to follow your young leadership, too." Votes: 0

But you listen to Coltrane and that's something human, something that's about elevation. It's like making love to a woman. It's about something of value, it's not just loud. It doesn't have that violent connotation to it. I wanted to be a jazz musician so bad, but I really couldn't. There was no way I could figure out to learn how to play. Votes: 0

Certain music, jazz in particular, has the ability to make you a better citizen of the world. It helps you expand your world view and gives you more confidence in your cultural achievements. Improvisational jazz teaches you about yourself while the swing in jazz teaches you how to work with others Votes: 0

Don't bullshit' just play. Votes: 0

Don't settle for style. Succeed in substance. Votes: 0

Don't wish for someone else to do later what you can do now. Votes: 0

Ethics are more important than laws. Which means that the exact note is less important than the feeling of the note. Votes: 0

Even if nobody's singing, just when you talk, you're singing. I'll meet somebody and say, "Oh, I'm tone-deaf." I say, "You're not tone-deaf, because if you were tone-deaf you would speak like that. But you're 'Oh, I'm tone-deaf.' You already sang a song to me." Votes: 0

Even in these times, there are still neighbors that will turn their backs on neighbors. Votes: 0

Everything about the swing is about some guideline and some grid and the elegant way that you negotiate your way through that grid. Votes: 0

Flexibility is an essential part of Jazz. It's what gives Jazz music the ability to combine with all other types of music and not lose its identity. Votes: 0

For me as a person who's in the arts and as someone who understands the magnitude of our contributions and the price that was paid to contribute to that, that we just have not gotten that together. I will do all that I can to get in front of our kids, to try to teach them, but at a certain point the people have to want it and come towards it. Votes: 0

Having heard Clifford Brown play all those fast runs, I used to really practice Clarke trumpet exercises all day long so that I could play fast. That's all I wanted to do. I was like a child with a toy. Votes: 0

He [Benny Carter] is all that every jazz musician the world over wants to be. He's performed 20,000 nights. How many shoes have been shined? How much mascara put on? Rouge? How many of those impossible bowties have been tied? How many love songs have been sung? How many dances have been danced? How many have passed to the sound of his music? It's been said that a man should not be forced to live up to his art. Benny Carter is one of the rare instances when we wonder whether the great art that a man has created can live up to him. Votes: 0

Humility is the doorway 2 truth & clarity of objectives... it's the doorway 2 learning. Votes: 0

I didn't have a philosophical understanding of music until I came to New York. I didn't understand how it applied to my kind and my generation. I thought it was just old people talking. Votes: 0

I get so much from having the opportunity to interface with the younger people and to bring information to them and to represent our culture and our way of life. The feeling and the warmth and the love, it's unbelievable. The type of exchange that goes on between students and teachers or visiting people who are doing master classes, and not just when they're musicians. Even general classes, when the students are not necessarily musicians. Votes: 0

I grew up in the South, in New Orleans, where guys torture you all the time. So I didn't really grow up on the self-esteem campaign. When you were lousy at something, they told you you were lousy, and they told you how to fix it. Votes: 0

I had to figure out how to survive in New York, and most of my time was occupied in getting an apartment and getting money. A lot of older jazz guys looked out for me and found me gigs and places to stay. Votes: 0

I have friends who will critique me much harder than any review. Votes: 0

I hope it might help players have confidence in our own ways, and not to be afraid of them, as Bernstein showed - things like hoe-downs, fiddle songs, and the art of improvisation, and the New Orleans funeral tradition, and call-and-response church singing, and the fact that the blues run through everything. And in our relationship to European music, in that we don't have to imitate it, it's a part of us, inseparable. Votes: 0

I love Gustavo Dudamel and I love what he does for classical music, and I love what he comes out of, El Sistema and the old man Abreu. When we were in Venezuela, I had the chance to go to his building. He had, like, five or six orchestras playing of kids from the hood playing, like, Mahler's third symphony and Shostakovich fifth and Beethoven. Man, it's unbelievable. I mean, they could play. Votes: 0

I remember when I wrote a piece, "Blood on the Fields," it was a while ago, it was about slavery and about two characters, and I studied so much of music, I would always go back to the original documents, and as much as I can get original chants and slave chants and different type of beats and rhythms and ring shout. Votes: 0

I think that when the education system started to be dismantled during the first Great Depression in the 1930s, we didn't recover from that. Votes: 0

I try to put a lot of our music in my music - by that I mean of American music. Votes: 0

I worry more about the marketing that's taken hold since the 70s. The Jazz era, the Swing era, those were huge. Entire decades were named for music. In the 1940s - after World War II - changes in taxation, ballrooms closing, people moving to the suburbs, and the onset of target marketing and the confusion of commerce with art caused some things to happen as a result that have taken us away from jazz and what jazz offers us. Votes: 0

If you looked around, you'd be glad you couldn't see. Votes: 0

If you want to be different, do something different. Votes: 0

If you're not making mistakes, you're not trying. Votes: 0

Instead of imposing your will on every situation...focus on including everyone else, and just that little adjustment of attitude gives you the space to understand where and who you are. Votes: 0

It's harder to build than destroy. To build is to engage and change. In jazz, we call progressing harmonies changes. Changes are like obstacles on a speed course. They demand your attention and require you to be present. They are coming...they are here..... and then they are gone. It's how life comes. Each moment is a procession from the future into the past and the sweet spot is always the present. Live in that sweet spot. Be present. Votes: 0

It's our job to just do as much as we can to enlighten the people about it and to represent it by playing it with some integrity. That's what I try to do. Votes: 0

Jazz celebrates older generations and not just the youth movement. When you "sell" only to people of a certain age, you get cut off from the main body of experience. The power of couple dancing and courtship, it's elegant, and you wouldn't realize America was once a nation of dancers and singers today. People of all races could dance and sing. Votes: 0

Jazz comes from our way of life, and because it's our national art form, it helps us to understand who we are. Votes: 0

Jazz is democracy in music. Votes: 0

Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music. Votes: 0

Jazz music celebrates life! Human life; the range of it, the absurdity of it, the ignorance of it, the greatness of it, the intelligence of it, the sexuality of it, the profundity of it. And it deals with it. In all of its... It deals with it! Votes: 0

Let the critics criticize and let the doers do. Votes: 0

Louis Armstrong is jazz. He represents what the music is all about. Votes: 0

Love is the spiritual essence of what we do. Technique is the manifestation of the preparation and investment as a result of the love. Votes: 0

Many heroic things happened during slavery. And remember that there was a national movement away from it even at the time. The era of Reconstruction and then the subsequent dismantling of Reconstruction sent us in a tailspin. Then we had the Civil Rights movement. Now we have our first non-white president. We have a pattern of moving apart and then coming back together throughout the history of this country. Each time, we come closer. Votes: 0

Milk in a mother's breast-that's cool. Milk in a mouth-that's cool too. But milk in my trumpet? Not so cool. I have to play that thing. Votes: 0

Music is the art of all the invisible things that are real. Art, emotion, spiritual essence, consciousness - these things are hard to prove. Music helps you to focus on your sound. We understand that for very young kids. Votes: 0

My father was a teacher, my mama was a community worker, I taught in so many schools. So when you get that experience of how to communicate with younger people, put that hand on them and give them that old-school feeling, the maturity and adult, a lot of our kids just need the feeling of that love, and that's the frame of reference that I teach from and that's the frame of reference that all of our musicians in the Jazz at Lincoln Center. Votes: 0

New Orleans - the real New Orleans - is the soul of the country. Votes: 0

No particular music makes me feel nostalgic. If it's great, it just keeps me in the present moment. That level of music is like a classic story, like the Iliad-something so perfect it can never be old. Votes: 0

Nothing else will ever capture the democratic process in sound as perfectly as Jazz. Votes: 0

One thing about excellence, it&Mac226;s an exclusive club. And it&Mac226;s only for those who really want to pay dues to the s--. My daddy told me when I was a boy: The only way you can be different from other people is to do some s-- they don't want to do. Votes: 0

Only a few act - the rest of us reap the benefits of their risk. Votes: 0

Our culture is what we did together. What did Walt Whitman represent for all of us? What was his message to us? That is an inheritance, and when we squander that inheritance we act outside. We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are. Votes: 0

So when we spend all of our time trying to separate that which is already joined, it's a waste of time. Votes: 0

Some stances are just conducive to swinging. If I stand up straight for too long it's harder to swing. Plus my feet hurt. Votes: 0

Sustained intensity equals ecstacy. Votes: 0

The arts shows that you're civilized, and it makes life sweet. So you can exist and you can buy more things and you can be more - we're dealing with a form of commercialism that obscures a prior relationship to quality, and it's a national problem. Votes: 0

The arts speak across epochs. If you think that people started to build a cathedral in 1315 and the people worked on that cathedral, it wasn't going to be finished until 1585. So they were thinking 200 years from now. Maybe by the time I die, this wall might be put up. Votes: 0

The best way to be, is to do. Votes: 0

The black hole in democracy is integrity. The great unspoken is integrity. When integrity is not first and foremost, it's quite palpable but not visible. It's always there. Jazz highlights it because musicians and jazz always represented a high level of integrity. Votes: 0

The blues is always there. It's going to be hard out here, but it's all right. It's all right, and that's what the blues teaches you. You got to roll with the punches and find your equilibrium. Votes: 0

The Duke and Swing represent affirmation in the face of adversity. Votes: 0

The musicians, Duke Ellington, his thing was not about separating himself from the rest of America. Louis Armstrong - go to the forefathers of our music - Jelly Roll Morton - they're not preaching a separatist agenda. They're not taking their music and saying, "This is for me." Votes: 0

The only justification for looking down on anyone is that you're going to stop and pick them up. Votes: 0

The real power of Jazz is that a group of people can come together and create improvised art and negotiate their agendas... and that negotiation is the art Votes: 0

The reason why the music [jazz] is important is because it's an art form-an ancient art form-that takes in the mythology of our people. Votes: 0

The soul gives us resilience - an essential quality since we constantly have to rebound from hardship. Votes: 0

There really have only ever been a few people in each generation who step out, are willing to put themselves on the line, and risk everything for their beliefs. Votes: 0

There's so much spirit of integration and democracy in jazz. Votes: 0

There's the tradition in jazz of having the Battle of the Bands, and you do not want to get your head cut when you're playing. Votes: 0

This is our bandstand. If you don't want to play, get up off the instrument and leave. Votes: 0

This music heals people because music is vibration, and the proper vibration heals. Votes: 0

This rebuilding of New Orleans gives us the perfect opportunity to see if we're ready to extend the legacy of Dr. King. Votes: 0

Those who play for applause....Tha t's all they get. Votes: 0

Trumpet players are just belligerant, and cocky, and you know, just hard-headed. Votes: 0

Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" is still in print. They're debating right now over Mark Twain. He's still available. Winslow Homer can still be seen. Our arts are - they're there. We got to go get them and understand that this is an important legacy for our country. Votes: 0

We all teach from that same frame of reference. We're like neighborhood - the people who have had the opportunity through this music to gain a platform and spread the message of this music, which is basically love in a form of communication that's honest and truthful. Votes: 0

We created the spirituals. We created so much great music, jazz chief amongst our innovations, teaching us how to prize ourselves and how to speak to one another, that our kids don't know that achievement, there's no way in the world that could be good for us. Votes: 0

We don't have the leadership or the understanding of the value of this, and when your political systems and your economic systems start to fail, it's only a cultural understanding that allows you to reconstruct them and to get back to who you are. For some reason, it hasn't dawned on us yet. Votes: 0

We fight for territory. We see it in our Congress, we see it in our political systems, we see it in our ways of life, how separated we are. When we moved out of the cities and we lost all of the memory that was in cities, and we - one of the highest achievements in our culture is to be able to segregate yourself from everyone else, and the deep thing is the deepest punishment is solitary confinement. Votes: 0

We learn a language through its song, and even if you don't have music you have the song of people you love's voice, and you'll notice that song in their voice. Votes: 0

We need more math classes, we need more science. It's the art of math and the art of science that creates all the innovation, and we have a tradition of great arts, great music. Votes: 0

We no longer want to be a melting pot, because we don't understand what is already melted. Votes: 0

We started to confuse entertainment with art, because art has a component of entertainment. It has to have that or it becomes too boring. It becomes too lost in its own devices. But I just think that we started to lose, and even before that, it's not necessary. Votes: 0

We're blues people. And blues never lets tragedy have the last word. Votes: 0

What is deeper than respect and love? That's what we felt: veneration. Votes: 0

When I came to New York, to Brooklyn, I met Alvin Ailey and Stanley Crouch and August Wilson. They were always putting things in a philosophical context. All the great jazz musicians did, too. There was always a sub-context to what they were saying about music even though they would be very down home and earthy. So I started to develop, in addition to my power and ability to simply hear, a way to place myself in a time. Votes: 0

When I first came to New York everybody on the scene would treat me like I could play, but I couldn't. Votes: 0

When I say "our," I definitely mean all of America. It's not less pertinent for you because it comes from a Black person, just like a great achievement by an Anglo American is less important. Votes: 0

When me and my brother would go to see our daddy playing, there'd be 30 people in the audience. I was only 14 or 15, but I realised something was wrong. Votes: 0

When those who are educated using their education to exploit those who aren't. That's what the sub-prime scandal represents - people of education using it at the expense of others. At Jazz at Lincoln Center, we have 22 educational programs. Not just the word but the substance of education is guided by the arts. Votes: 0

Who creates a thing is not as important as what the thing is. Who created baseball? Who created basketball? Who created the space program? Who created - we could go on and on. We could argue about who created something. We all are participants in it. Votes: 0

You don't try to duplicate certain things that other cats do, because you could never do it as well as they do. Nobody can get on that tenor saxophone and play like Trane, because he's the only one who can spell out chords and sound good when he does it. Votes: 0