Lionel Hampton

I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s.

Black and white players hadn’t appeared together in public before Teddy Wilson and I began working with B.G.

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God.

I think I love it more as I get older because I keep getting better on drums, vibes and piano.

Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.

You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

The fabulous places I’ve been, wonderful things that’ve happened, great people I’ve met ought to make a story.

You’re just a little too hip for the room. It’s not good to be too hip because two hips make an ass.

How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it.

Kinship doesn’t come from skin color. It’s in your soul and your mind.

How can I turn emotion into knowledge? That’s what I try to do with my horn.

When you sing, always tell the truth.

If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet.

Those who were seen dancing were thought insane by those who could not hear the music.

My wife Martha used to call me Ol’ Lemon Face because of my facial contortions when I play Lucille. I squeeze my eyes and open my mouth, raise my eyebrows, cock my head and God knows what else. I look like I’m in torture, when in truth, I’m in ecstasy. I don’t do it for show. Every fiber of my being is tingling.

The better it gets, the fewer of us know it.

What don’t I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain’t nobody here saying, ‘You’d better learn this.’ But I still think I’ve got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me.

The fact that an artist is experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in it together.

Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn’t have.

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.