Great Throughts Treasury

"If you got up on the bandstand at Minton?s and couldn?t play, you were not only going to be embarrassed by the people ignoring you or booing you, you might get your ass kicked."

"If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can't be trusted."

"In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That?s a little bit too much."

"It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change."

"I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life."

"It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it."

"I've always told the musicians in my band to play what they know and then play above that. Because then anything can happen, and that's where great art and music happens."

"Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself."

"Monk was a gentle person, gentle and beautiful, but he was strong as an ox. And if I had ever said something about punching Monk out in front of his face ? and I never did ? then somebody should have just come and got me and taken me to the madhouse, because Monk could have just picked my little ass up and thrown me through a wall."

"Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player."

"Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street."

"Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it."

"Nothing is out of the question for me. I?m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light?Then I?m grateful."

"Music is an addiction."

"Philly Joe was a bitch. If he'd been a lawyer and white, he would have been president of the United States, because in order to get there you gotta talk fast and carry a lot of bullshit with you; Philly had it all and a lot to spare."

"Sometimes you have to play a long time to play like yourself."

"That was my gift - having the ability to put certain guys together that would create a chemistry and then letting them go; letting them play what they knew, and above it."

"People will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype. They want to be hip, want always to be in on the new thing so they don't look unhip."

"So what?"

"You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line... We're just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best."

"You have to be born with it. You can't even buy it. If you could buy it, they'd have it at the next Newport Festival."

"You can?t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn?t come from him, not even modern shit. I can?t even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang. (On Louis Armstrong)"

"We?re not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got ?em, so they can keep ?em."

"We were all up in that shit like a muthafucka. It's cleaner than a broke dick dog."

"You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads."