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.
I sounded like myself. People be saying I sound like Miles or Clifford Brown.
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.
I have friends who will critique me much harder than any review.
Ethics are more important than laws.
Don’t wish for someone else to do later what you can do now.
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?
Only a few act – the rest of us reap the benefits of their risk.
It was Dr. King’s tireless activism that fostered our modern way of relating to one another.
Trumpet players see each other, and it’s like we’re getting ready to square off or get into a fight or something.
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.
The only justification for looking down on anyone is that you’re going to stop and pick them up.
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.
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.
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.
Everything about the swing is about some guideline and some grid and the elegant way that you negotiate your way through that grid.
Even in these times, there are still neighbors that will turn their backs on neighbors.
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.
You need a team. You need people to push you. You need opponents.
Let the critics criticize and let the doers do.