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" The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel. "

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" My schedule is always tight. But I like to have the pressure of having to finish doing something; it gives me an added edge. "

Wynton Marsalis

Finish

Edge

Doing

" 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 thing is, once you start to put a backbeat on your music or something that has a machine in it, you have popularity, but you lose the flexibility. And you lose a richness. "

" 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. "

" There's the tradition in jazz of having the Battle of the Bands, and you do not want to get your head cut when you're playing. "

" When me and my brother would go to see our daddy playing, there'd be 30 people in the audience. I was only 14 or 15, but I realised something was wrong. "

Wynton Marsalis

People

" If you are serious about American culture and you are serious about Afro-American culture, you are in a lot of pain. You are not - you are not smiling about it. "

" The nerves are a problem on trumpet, because when you mess up everyone can hear it. Just remember most people are too polite to say anything about it. That should calm your nerves. "

" I almost never watch TV, except for '60 Minutes' and pro football. I love Drew Brees, the Manning brothers and the Steelers' linebackers. "

Wynton Marsalis

Watch

Never

" The heart of a music is its rhythm. The heart of rhythm section music is the rhythm. "

" There's always the cliche of the choir shouting and clapping. OK, you have to do that, but there's also introspective parts, parts where you just follow someone that's preaching. There's lots of different emotions and moods that a service requires. "

" Jazz music is America's past and its potential, summed up and sanctified and accessible to anybody who learns to listen to, feel, and understand it. The music can connect us to our earlier selves and to our better selves-to-come. It can remind us of where we fit on the time line of human achievement, an ultimate value of art. "

" The bandstand is a sacred place. "

" Jazz music creates so many phenomenal figures. "

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

" I feel that for years of teaching in the country and reading criticism in books, I feel like the things most needed in our culture are the understanding of the meanings of our music. We haven't done that good of job teaching our kids what our music means or how we developed our taste in music that reminds us and teaches us who we are. "

" I grew up in the South, in New Orleans, where guys torture you all the time. So I didn't really grow up on the self-esteem campaign. When you were lousy at something, they told you you were lousy, and they told you how to fix it. "

" We looked up to our father. He still is much greater than us. "

Wynton Marsalis

Father

Still

" Trumpet players see each other, and it's like we're getting ready to square off or get into a fight or something. "

Wynton Marsalis

See

Ready

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

" I got my first trumpet when I was six years old, from Al Hirt. My father was playing in Al Hirt's band at that time. "

" I always read all these books about the slaves. My mother is very educated. My father would talk to us like we were grown men. We never knew what he was talking about half the time. "

" Through first-class education, a generation marches down the long uncertain road of the future with confidence. "

" The rebuilding of New Orleans is an important point in the history of the United States. "

" A musician's whole life is to listen. "

" Through improvisation, jazz teaches you about yourself. And through swing, it teaches you that other people are individuals too. It teaches you how to coordinate with them. "

" We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation. "

" I generally work right up to when I have to do something - I'm always doing a lot. "

Wynton Marsalis

Doing

Lot

" When I was 12, I began listening to John Coltrane and I developed a love for jazz, which I still have more and more each year. "

Wynton Marsalis

Year

Jazz

" There really have only ever been a few people in each generation who step out, are willing to put themselves on the line, and risk everything for their beliefs. "