Louis Armstrong

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

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

There is two kinds of music, the good and the bad. I play the good kind.

Making money ain’t nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you’re just as graveyard dead as he is.

You blows who you is.

What we play is life.

I’ve always liked the Freddie King/B. B. King rich tone, and at the same time, I like the manic Buddy Guy/Otis Rush Strat tone. So I’m always caught in the middle of the Gibson and Fender sounds. If I’m playing my black [Fender] Strat, and I’m in the middle of a blues, I kind of wish I was playing a [Gibson] Les Paul. Then again, if I was playing a Les Paul, the sound would be great, but I’d be saying, “Man, I wish I had the Stratocaster neck!”

[On urging Nyro to tell Barbara Streisand that ‘Wedding Bell Blues’ had been personally written for her] It’s not a big lie.

Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain’t.

I haven’t a great Jazz band and I don’t want one.

If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.

The true musician is to bring light into people’s hearts.

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.

I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later.

There’s a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste.

First of all, I never strive for identity. That’s something that just has happened automatically as a result, I think, of just putting things together, tearing things apart and putting it together my own way, and somehow I guess the individual comes through eventually.

You can’t go to the store and buy a good ear and rhythm.

I don’t really get nervous, I prepare. When the music messed up in the beginning, it tapped into my nerves and when you’re nervous and vulnerable, something special and something different can happen.

Miles Davis was a part of my life from 1947 on. I was born in 1941 and I first heard him in 1947 on a 78 rpm. And then I followed his career, starting with his first solo album in 1951. He was an icon and inspiration and a mentor to me.

The guitar chose me.

Forget about upholding the tradition and just play who you really are.