Quotes for All
I listened to King Oliver and I listened to Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp… I listened to everything I could that came from that place that they call the blues but, in formality, isn’t necessarily the blues. Eric Clapton
Louis Armstrong was the primary contributor to jazz music in the 20th century. His improvisational skills served as the principal model for all who came after him, regardless of one’s chosen instrument. Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
Louis Armstrong is the master of the jazz solo. He became the beacon, the light in the tower, that helped the rest of us navigate the tricky waters of jazz improvisation. Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
[Louis Armstrong] could play a trumpet like nobody else, then put it down and sing a song like no one else could. Eddie Condon
You look at a guy like Lance Armstrong, and you have to be inspired. I sat next to Kirk Douglas the other day, and he’s inspiring for fighting through his stroke Ed Harris
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
Man, you’d be surprised how much I’m learning – not only about myself, but about the musicians who came before me. You don’t realize at first when you listen to Armstrong’s records how great this man was and how hard that Hot Five music was to play. After the experience of reading and playing those … Read more
No matter what age we are, regress to a certain youthfulness with people we’ve known our whole lives, especially our parents. And since I’ve written the brothers as young people a lot – most notably Archer & Armstrong #0 and the upcoming Book of Death: Legends of the Geomancer #4 , it comes very naturally … Read more
I am black: I am the incarnation of a complete fusion with the world, an intuitive understanding of the earth, an abandonment of my ego in the heart of the cosmos, and no white man, no matter how intelligent he may be, can ever understand Louis Armstrong and the music of the Congo. Frantz Fanon
I am black; I am in total fusion with the world, in sympathetic affinity with the earth, losing my id in the heart of the cosmos — and the white man, however intelligent he may be, is incapable of understanding Louis Armstrong or songs from the Congo. I am black, not because of a curse, … Read more