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" There are forces all around you who wish to exploit division, rob you of your freedom, and tell you what to think. But young folks can rekindle the weary spirit of a slumbering nation. "
Wynton Marsalis
Freedom
You
Spirit
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" I dress up a certain way because I respect the music. "
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" Don't wish for someone else to do later what you can do now. "
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" Whenever you face a man who's playing your instrument, there's a competition. "
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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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" 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. "
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" Don't settle for style. Succeed in substance. "
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" Everything comes out in blues music: joy, pain, struggle. Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance. It's about a man and a woman. So the pain and the struggle in the blues is that universal pain that comes from having your heart broken. Most blues songs are not about social statements. "
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" It's important to address young people in the reopening of New Orleans. In rebuilding, let's revisit the potential of American democracy and American glory. "
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" I had to figure out how to survive in New York, and most of my time was occupied in getting an apartment and getting money. A lot of older jazz guys looked out for me and found me gigs and places to stay. "
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" Ethics are more important than laws. "
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" I believed in studying just because I knew education was a privilege. It was the discipline of study, to get into the habit of doing something that you don't want to do. "
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" Duke Ellington always had a style: original, clean with interesting color combinations. He had an artist's eye. "
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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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" Even in these times, there are still neighbors that will turn their backs on neighbors. "
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" I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play. "
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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. "
Wynton Marsalis
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" Trumpet players see each other, and it's like we're getting ready to square off or get into a fight or something. "
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" I play piano and drums very poorly and French horn and tuba all equally as bad. "
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" Jazz comes from our way of life, and because it's our national art form, it helps us to understand who we are. "
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" You need a team. You need people to push you. You need opponents. "
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" What I've learned how to do as I've gotten older is to take all of the information that I have, and push it aside, and try to distill each song into an emotional theme. The hardest thing that I've ever had to learn how to do in playing music is use the sound of my instrument to create an emotional effect. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" 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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" 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. "
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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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" I'm not a person who writes really abstract things with oblique references. I look at abstraction like I look at condiments. Give me some Tabasco sauce, some ketchup, some mayonnaise. I love all of that. Put it on a trumpet. I've just got to have the ketchup and Tabasco sauce. That's my attitude about musical philosophy. "
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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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" Through first-class education, a generation marches down the long uncertain road of the future with confidence. "
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" I'm just lucky to have the type of friends and musicians and people dedicated to my music that I do. "
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