Compendium of Jazz Quotes – Louis Armstrong
Matthew Mullenweg created the content management system WordPress (which is what I use to blog). He is also a jazzer, and he has created a great compendium of jazz quotes–quite likely the only comprehensive online resource available for this topic. Check out the complete index on Matt’s site here. Here are some selected quotes from this great resource:
- “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it.”
- “Making money ain’t nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you’re just as graveyard dead as he is.”
- “Hot can be cool, and cool can be hot, and each can be both. But hot or cool, man, jazz is jazz.”
- “Never play anything the same way twice.”
- “To jazz, or not to jazz, there is no question!”
- “Man, if you have to ask what it is, you’ll never know.”
Photo credit – flickr.com/photos/22067139@N05/
11 February 2008, 1:29 am
I have heard that first quote attributed verbatim to a famous classical musician, I can’t remember who.
11 February 2008, 8:15 am
I’ve also heard that quote attributed to Jascha Heifetz. Who knows where it originally came from, but it’s a good one.