“I ain’t no entertainer, and ain’t trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician.”

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

Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery.

Some musicians play with their heart, you know what I mean? I don’t know what to tell a person that can’t – if you can’t tell a person what you’re talkin’ about when they’re rushin’ or droppin’ the tempo, you get somebody else.

For me, music and life are all about style.

Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it.

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.

You have to practice for a long time before you can learn to sound like yourself.

You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.

If somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I’d spend it choking a white man. I’d do it nice and slow.

Play what you know and then play above that

That was my gift having the ability to put certain guys together that would create a chemistry and then letting them go; letting them play what they knew, and above it.

I’ve always told the musicians in my band to play what they know and then play above that. Because then anything can happen, and that’s where great art and music happens.

He sounded to me like he’s supposed to be the savior of jazz. Sometimes people speak as though someone asked them a question. Well, no one asked him a question.

You can tell whether a person plays well or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not.

At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington.

For some musicians it becomes self-reflexive to think, “I have to write some of my kind of songs now.”

I was a fairly good amateur musician, and I was an average professional. But the one thing I saw was that the big band business was fading.

It is really beautiful, and musical in its poetry.

Not only are they just great, nice guys; they’re some of the best musicians you’re likely to find.

The people who vote for the Grammy nominees are mostly in their 40s and have other jobs or are musicians themselves. They like music that they can relate to – they like commercial music.

The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.

If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.