Louis Armstrong

You will never know what the meaning of Jazz is if ask what it means.

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it… for two days, the critics know it… three days, the public knows it.

Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.

There are some people that if they don’t know, you can’t tell them.

In the 1990s, with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, those really big female artists were very glamorous, it was all about the glamour at that time. And so there was a big switch, the desire to be more who you were, not so beholden to this whole standard of beauty. It was a liberation. You see Mary J Blige – she did the same, wearing the combat boots.

It’s just exciting to be part of something that is brand-new.

Eliminating the piano means that I’ve always worked closer with the bass than most players.

One way or the other, if you want to find reasons why you shouldn’t keep on, you’ll find ’em. The obstacles are all there; there are a million of ’em.

I’m meant to be an artist who can stand on my own. That’s my place; that’s what I’m supposed to do.

The guitar chose me.

The majority of people mistakenly feel they don’t need a live musical experience.

It takes an intelligent ear to listen to Jazz.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

There’s only one bass player in a band. I’m the best bass player of any band I’m in.

Give it a good go, try to have fun at it, try to pass on some good notes and some good sounds to your fans, and I don’t think you will have wasted your time.

I loved Billie Holiday more than any other person other than myself on the stage.

You don’t know what you like, you like what you know. In order to know what you like, you have to know everything.

That’s where I heard feedback first – from Les Paul. Also vibratos – even before B.B. King, you know. I’ve traced a hell of a lot of rock and roll, little riffs and things, back to Les Paul – it’s all there. I mean, he’s the father of it all: multi-tracking and everything else. If it hadn’t been for him, there wouldn’t have been anything really.

Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that’s it. No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa.