“Certain drummers drop time, and I like to play on top of the beat.”

That’s the way women do. The frown. They want to give you the attitude to approach them back, by giving you a negative vibe.

Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!

Always listen for what you can leave out.

My father’s rich, my momma’s good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I’ve never suffered and don’t intend to suffer.

There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.

If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can’t be trusted.

I’m out there doing the best that I can, My lip is cut and I’m still playing.

It took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to listen five minutes and understand it?

It takes a long time to sound like yourself.

I don’t pay no attention to what critics say about me, the good or the bad. The toughest critic I got is myself…and I’m too vain to play anything I think is bad.

Food makes my mind sluggish.

If you love them in the morning with their eyes full of crust; if you love them at night with their hair full of rollers, chances are, you’re in love.

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.

What Muddy Waters did for us is what we should do for others. It’s the old thing, what you want written on your tombstone as a musician: ‘He passed it on.’

When I was thirteen I only wanted to be a drummer.

Sort of doesn’t really matter as much anymore, when you’re surrounded by great musicians who bring their spirit, their own talent.

I’m on my feet and I’m doing what I love to do, and I’m in a profession, as a musician, where we can go on for as long as we can go on.

Fondest memory of being a Beatle: Having three brothers.

I think musicians are perfect at knowing how to get the best out of other musicians. I can really relate to that communion.

I’m a self-taught musician, so I never really had the restrictions of any one instrument.

The Beatles were just four guys that loved each other. That’s all they’ll ever be.