This page is just a collection of odd quotes and things which for some reason have made an impression on me. They may not be 'as is', but are near enough for jazz!
I will add items as they occur to me.
|
What I read or heard |
Who? |
Source/place/context |
| "It don't cost you nothin' to shine your shoes." | Earl Hines |
An interview in a book or mag. |
| "There ain't no 'H' in music. Just a thru g. Keep to the changes. That's what I try to do." | Waldron 'Frog' Joseph. Trombonist | 'Frog' giving me advice in New Orleans c.1973 |
| "Dave, I get the impression you'd like to have been born about 40 years earlier." | Dan Barret |
A jazz club in Belgium c.'97. |
| "I'm not a collector but the few records I have are worth their weight in gold." | Bert Heuvinck |
Probably over a beer during one of our many sessions in the early eighties. |
| "Tain't what ya do" | 'Trummy' |
Recordings |
| "Really? I had no idea. I'll have to check that out!" | 'Trummy' |
After a concert in Belgium when I asked Trummy what he thought about Fun Boy Three having a worldwide hit with his song. I think he was serious too! (c.1982) |
| "Nope! But we sure have a lot of fun tryin'." | Louis |
When the Pope asked if he had any kids back home. (According to Pops) .....mmmmm |
| "No idea what key it's in, but it starts here!" (pointing to the fourth position on his trombone.) | Nick Williams |
Sometime in the 60's. Location: a jazz club in Birmingham U.K. He was joking. |
| "Wat it is man!" |
Johnny Brown (Gentleman Bassist) |
Everywhere, all the time... God bless his soul. |
| "I'm only interested in music that works." | Keith Smith |
Interview in a jazz mag. (Jazz Journal perhaps) |
| "If you're not sure how to play something, just refer to how Louis did it and it's bound to be right." | Chris Barber |
BBC Radio 2 - 'Chris Barber's jazz Diaries' |
| "I just give them money." | Duke |
When he was asked (by Humph) if there was any special secret to keeping a big band going for so long. |
| "Jazz ain't what it used to be. The saxophone has taken over from the clarinet, the trumpet's playin' the clarinet part, the trombone's playing the trumpet part, the..." | Jimmy Durante |
According to Robert Parker, 'Schnozz' said something along these lines. |
| We don't think of the roles in those terms... it's more an intuitive thing. We interact spontaneously. That's what works for us. | Keith Richards |
When asked who plays lead and who plays rhythm guitar in the Stones - you or Ronnie? |
| Blues was the magic ingredient that turned ragtime into jazz. |
Robert Parker |
When talking about Chicago jazz in one of his great broadcasts. |
| You can only play how you want to play if you practice how you want to play. | Chris Dean |
This came from a trombone forum... An over simplification maybe but... I love it! |
| You can't write a poem in Japanese unless you have mastered the language. | Jiggs Whigham |
Talking about chops... great interview on YouTube. |
|
My first real influence in jazz was Lester
Young... I liked Trummy Young and Vic Dickenson... Everyone has an inner voice trying to get out... |
J J Johnson |
Super little interview with JJ... how to say so much in a few words... fantastic. |
| “Don’t play like you’re trying to prove that you can play. You can play.” | Sweets Edison |
Giving advice to a young Wynton Marsalis... |
| "You can only get out of your horn what you put into it." | Doc Severinsen |
Clinic on YouTube - talking about practicing |
| "Catch the swing" and "Never play ragtime too fast"... | Scott Joplin |
In an early (pre-jazz) instructional publication on how to play ragtime, so before the expression 'swing' was coined in its more familiar context.. |
| "Just play the notes as Joplin wrote them and it will sound jazzy enough..." | Bunk Johnson |
Bunk liked, played and recorded many rags. He quite rightly regarded it as regular repertoire. |
| "I came here to find out what I've been doing." | Duke Ellington | When Duke walked in on an Ellington arrangement class at Berklee |
| "If you're playing funk you're playing funk and not jazz." | Wynton Marsalis | Wynton said this in an interview somewhere. Just my thought too. |
| "You've been listening to Roy Williams" |
A German trombonist once said to me on a gig |
The greatest compliment I ever had. |