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" The first time I ever played the trumpet in public, I played the Marine Hymn. I sounded terrible. "
Wynton Marsalis
First Time
Public
Time
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" My daddy expected that my brothers and I and our generation would make the world a better place. He had lived in an America of continual social progress. "
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" 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? "
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" I never minded giving my opinions. They are just opinions, and I had studied music and I had strong feelings. I was happy for my opinions to join all the other opinions. But you have to be prepared for what comes back, especially if you don't agree with the dominant mythology. "
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" The musicians I respected were much older than me. I expected them to cut my head, and they did. "
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" 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. "
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" Maybe the preoccupation with technological progress has overshadowed our concern with human progress. "
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" When people dress well, they play well. "
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" People have taken time out of their day and spent their money to come sit down at a concert. And it's jazz music-it's not easy for them to get to it. I don't want them ever to feel that I'm taking their presence lightly. "
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Time
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" I didn't have a philosophical understanding of music until I came to New York. I didn't understand how it applied to my kind and my generation. I thought it was just old people talking. "
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New York
Kind
Thought
" When I first came to New York everybody on the scene would treat me like I could play, but I couldn't. "
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Treat
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" 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. "
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Time
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" Many of our greatest musicians abandoned all of their aesthetic objectives to try to become pertinent. And, at the end of the day, they never became pop stars. I counter stated that very strongly, and I continue to do that. "
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Stars
End Of The Day
End
" I generally work right up to when I have to do something - I'm always doing a lot. "
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Doing
Lot
Up
" My father is a jazz musician, so I grew up hearing jazz. My parents loved it, but I didn't like it. It went on for too long. Yes, I had certain teachers that really inspired me, like Danny Barker, and John Longo. And I had no idea that I would have any impact on jazz. "
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Long
Parents
Me
" I dress up a certain way because I respect the music. "
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Respect
Up
" There's so much spirit of integration and democracy in jazz. "
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Jazz
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Spirit
" Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12-bar form that's played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic vocabulary that's been used by rock n' roll. It's related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition. "
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American
Jazz
Music
" 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. "
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Someone
Service
You
" My daddy thought - no, he expected - that my brothers and I and our generation would make the world a better place. He was correct in his belief because he had lived in an America of continual social progress, depression followed by prosperity, segregation by integration, and so on. "
Wynton Marsalis
Progress
World
Depression
" I think that the blues is in everything, so it's not possible to neglect it. You hear somebody go 'Ooh ooh oooh,' and that's the blues. You hear a rock n' roll song. That's the blues. Somebody playing a guitar solo? They're playing the blues. "
Wynton Marsalis
Rock
Song
Think
" I grew up in the South, and our way of dealing with each other was teasing, ribbing, making fun and scrapping in the street. Criticism doesn't bother me so much. It actually made me, when I was younger, more aggressive. But you get into middle age, and you lose interest in that stuff. It's not serious. "
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You
Fun
Criticism
" Swing is extreme coordination. It's a maintaining balance, equilibrium. It's about executing very difficult rhythms with a panache and a feeling in the context of very strict time. So, everything about the swing is about some guideline and some grid and the elegant way that you negotiate your way through that grid. "
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Balance
You
Way
" Only a few act - the rest of us reap the benefits of their risk. "
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" When I auditioned for my high school band the band director was excited because my father was known to be a great musician. When he heard me, he said 'Are you sure you're Ellis's son?' "
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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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Blues
American
" Duke Ellington always had a style: original, clean with interesting color combinations. He had an artist's eye. "
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Style
Color
Eye
" Don't worry about what others say about your music. Pursue whatever you are hearing... but if everybody really hates your music maybe you could try some different approaches. "
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You
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" I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel, listening to it. "
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" The best way to be, is to do. "
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" The majority of the high schools and the public schools in N.Y.C. don't even have band programs. Hip-hop in a lot of ways is an outgrowth of a lack of instruments and a desire to play music, so we can't really fault the kids for that. "
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Hip-Hop
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