Wynton Marsalis Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“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.”

“Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music.”

“Maybe the preoccupation with technological progress has overshadowed our concern with human progress.”

“I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.”

“There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't improvising.”

“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?”

“I try to find the core values that are so fundamental that they transcend ethnic identity. That doesn't mean I run from it. I embrace African-American culture and I love it and embrace it, but it is a part of a human identity. So I'm always trying to make a larger human statement.”

“The main three components are the blues, improvisation - which is some kind of element that people are trying to make it up - and swing, which means even though they're making up music, they're trying to make it up together. It feels great, like you're having a great conversation with somebody.”

“My older brother and myself always played together in bands, but we never knew we would be professional musicians.”

“Jazz comes from our way of life, and because it's our national art form, it helps us to understand who we are.”