Louis Armstrong Quotes

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Quotes About Louis Armstrong

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Love is talkative passion. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
There's a thing I've dreamed of all my life, and I'll be damned if it don't look like it's about to come true-to be King of the Zulu's parade. After that, I'll be ready to die. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Amelia was instantly distracted when she heard one of her favorite songs: What a Wonderful World made famous by Louis Armstrong. The woman singing did the song justice as she sang:
I see trees of gree, red roses, too.
I see them bloom, for me and you.
And I think to myself.
What a wonderful world!
Before she could blink an eye, Rick pulled her into his arms in a waltz position.
He gave her a wink and said flirtatiously, "May I have this dance, my love?"
As they danced to the rhythm of the music, Amelia said, "Don't ever stop flirting with me, no matter how old we get."
"Never! ~ Linda Weaver Clarke
Louis Armstrong quotes by Linda Weaver Clarke
All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. It has given me something to live for. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
You see, pops, that's the kind of talk that's ruining the music. Everyone's trying to do something new, no one trying to learn the fundamentals first. All them young cats playing their wierd chords. And what happens? No one's working. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
[Louis Armstrong] could play a trumpet like nobody else, then put it down and sing a song like no one else could. ~ Eddie Condon
Louis Armstrong quotes by Eddie Condon
We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
You've got to be good or as bad as the devil. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
We all go Do, Re, Mi, but you've gotta find all the other notes yourself. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Seems to me it ain't the world that's so bad but what we're doing to it, and all I'm saying is: see what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love, baby - love. That's the secret. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
When I was a young man, I shined the shoes of Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan! Music was just everywhere like that. And in my family, everyone could play something, and if they couldn't play, they could sing. ~ Chuck Brown
Louis Armstrong quotes by Chuck Brown
Louis Armstrong was the primary contributor to jazz music in the 20th century. His improvisational skills served as the principal model for all who came after him, regardless of one's chosen instrument. ~ Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
Louis Armstrong quotes by Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
And my dad wanted me to play the trumpet because that's what he liked. His idol was Louis Armstrong. My dad thought my teeth came together in a way that was perfect for playing the trumpet. ~ Jackson Browne
Louis Armstrong quotes by Jackson Browne
You can't take it for granted. Even if we have two, three days off I still have to blow that horn a few hours to keep up the chops. I mean I've been playing 50 years, and that's what I've been doing in order to keep in that groove there. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
If you still have to ask, shame on you ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I saw Louis Armstrong perform at Albany State College on Radio Springs Road. He was probably the first famous individual I saw in concert. Unfortunately, I never did get to meet him. ~ Ray Stevens
Louis Armstrong quotes by Ray Stevens
When I go to the Gate, I'll play a duet with Gabriel. Yeah, we'll play 'Sleepy Time Down South' and 'Hello, Dolly!.' Then he can blow a couple that he's been playing up there all the time. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I'm a spade, you're an ofay. Let's play. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
The Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in ... Guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy and there was lots of plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all. I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I listened to King Oliver and I listened to Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp ... I listened to everything I could that came from that place that they call the blues but, in formality, isn't necessarily the blues. ~ Eric Clapton
Louis Armstrong quotes by Eric Clapton
I think that anybody from the 20th century, up to now, has to be aware that if it wasn't for Louis Armstrong, we'd all be wearing powdered wigs. I think that Louis Armstrong loosened the world, helped people to be able to say "Yeah," and to walk with a little dip in their hip. Before Louis Armstrong, the world was definitely square, just like Christopher Columbus thought. ~ Hugh Masekela
Louis Armstrong quotes by Hugh Masekela
I am black: I am the incarnation of a complete fusion with the world, an intuitive understanding of the earth, an abandonment of my ego in the heart of the cosmos, and no white man, no matter how intelligent he may be, can ever understand Louis Armstrong and the music of the Congo. ~ Frantz Fanon
Louis Armstrong quotes by Frantz Fanon
Give me a kiss to build a dream on
And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss
Sweetheart, I ask no more than this
A kiss to build a dream on. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I can play the trumpet. Before I became an actor, I wanted to be the next Louis Armstrong. I started young and got to grade seven. When I turned 13, everyone started whipping out guitars, looking cool and joining rock bands, so I stopped playing. ~ Douglas Booth
Louis Armstrong quotes by Douglas Booth
I love Ray Charles. He can still teach everybody a lot about how to make great music. Not necessarily how to make hits, but how to make great music. Of course, part of it is his incredible talent. Who are the greatest jazz singers in the world? Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Ray Charles. ~ Ahmet Ertegun
Louis Armstrong quotes by Ahmet Ertegun
The whole point of Louis Armstrong is that no one can really figure him out. There was a while where I thought you could try. ~ Sarah Vowell
Louis Armstrong quotes by Sarah Vowell
Man, you'd be surprised how much I'm learning - not only about myself, but about the musicians who came before me. You don't realize at first when you listen to Armstrong's records how great this man was and how hard that Hot Five music was to play. After the experience of reading and playing those parts, I have an even greater respect for Louis Armstrong than before ~ Freddie Hubbard
Louis Armstrong quotes by Freddie Hubbard
Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
There's no appreciation for the giants [of jazz]; there's never been a major film on Duke Ellington , never a major film on Louis Armstrong. What they accomplished, we could never accomplish today ... What's happening now is lightweight compared to what happened before. If Louis Armstrong was alive today, he'd be a superstar. If Art Tatum was alive today, my god, all the piano players would get on their knees. So that's what's missing today; we've been cut off from our heritage. ~ Randy Weston
Louis Armstrong quotes by Randy Weston
To jazz, or not to jazz, there is no question! ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong changed all the brass players around, but after Bird, all of the instruments had to change - drums, piano, bass, trombones, trumpets, saxophones, everything. ~ Cootie Williams
Louis Armstrong quotes by Cootie Williams
It's fair to say that white America wouldn't have elected an African-American president without the integrating effect of black music - from Louis Armstrong to hip-hop - and black drama and fiction, commercial as much as 'serious.' ~ Joe Haldeman
Louis Armstrong quotes by Joe Haldeman
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell them. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
All them weird chords which don't mean a thing ... you got no melody to remember, and no beat to dance to ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Paul Whiteman, Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra, Lionel Hampton, the Mills Brothers, Woody Herman, and Nat King Cole. "Mona Lisa, men have named you, ~ George Hodgman
Louis Armstrong quotes by George Hodgman
I don't let my mouth say nothin' my head can't stand ... ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don't practice for three days, the public knows it. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
The wild notes of tuba and trumpet and trombone rattled and hummed through the trees. In the first group of musicians, there were kids as young as fourteen playing the tuba and one kid who probably couldn't drive banging a bass drum. They stomped together in rhythm to the music. Two ladies had dressed up in what looked like princess outfits. They wore white gloves and socks with tassels. ~ Hunter Murphy
Louis Armstrong quotes by Hunter Murphy
I had a chance to play with the best musicians that were coming through because I was pretty good myself or else they wouldn't have tolerated with me. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong playing trumpet on the Judgment Day. ~ Al Stewart
Louis Armstrong quotes by Al Stewart
It makes you feel good, man, makes you forget all the bad things that happen to a Negro. It makes you feel wanted, and when you're with another tea smoker, it makes you feel a special kinship. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
What a wonderful world. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Armstrong was the key creator of the mature working language of jazz. Three decades after his death and more than three-quarters of a century since his influence first began to spread, not a single musician who has mastered that language fails to make daily use, knowingly or unknowingly, of something that was invented by Louis Armstrong. ~ Dan Morgenstern
Louis Armstrong quotes by Dan Morgenstern
I listen to jazz about three hours a day. I love Louis Armstrong. ~ Philip Levine
Louis Armstrong quotes by Philip Levine
At first it was just a misdemeanor, but then you lost the "mis-de" and you just got meaner and meaner.. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I'd like to hear five recordings of Louis Armstrong playing and singing "What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue"-all at the same time. Sometimes now I listen to Louis while I have my favorite dessert of vanilla ice cream and sloe gin. I pour the red liquid over the white mound, watching it glisten and the vapor rising as Louis bends that military instrument into a beam of lyrical sound. ~ Ralph Ellison
Louis Armstrong quotes by Ralph Ellison
And if Mozart is for Sundays, who do you listen to the rest of the week?"
"Louis Armstrong on Mondays, Frank Sinatra on Wednesdays. And Glenn Miller on Fridays, unless it's raining. If it's raining, it's always Billie Holiday."
"What about Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday?" I asked.
"Those days are quiet. Unless it's raining. ~ Clare Vanderpool
Louis Armstrong quotes by Clare Vanderpool
The thing in jazz that will get Bix Beiderbecke out of his bed at two o'clock in the morning, pick that cornet up and practice into the pillow for another two or three hours, or that would make Louis Armstrong travel around the world for fifty plus years non stop, just get up out of his sick bed, crawl up on the bandstand and play, the thing that would make Duke Ellington, the thing that would make Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Mary Lou Williams, the thing that would make all of these people give their lives for this, and they did give their lives, is that it gives us a glimpse into what America is going to be when it becomes itself. And this music tells you that it will become itself. And when you get a taste of that, there's just nothing else you're going to taste that's as sweet. ~ Wynton Marsalis
Louis Armstrong quotes by Wynton Marsalis
Louis Armstrong is the master of the jazz solo. He became the beacon, the light in the tower, that helped the rest of us navigate the tricky waters of jazz improvisation. ~ Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
Louis Armstrong quotes by Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
I don't need words. It's all in the phrasing. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I lay my body down in another city, another hotel room. Once Louis Armstrong and his band stayed here. Later the hotel fell to trash. New money resurrected it. Under the red moon of justice, I dream with the king of jazz. ~ Joy Harjo
Louis Armstrong quotes by Joy Harjo
A very few musicians passed across all decades. In terms of trumpet playing, Louis Armstrong does it of course but Sweets [Edison] is right up there too. He is unique, in every sense of the term. ~ Freddie Hubbard
Louis Armstrong quotes by Freddie Hubbard
The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people goin' by I see friends shaking hands saying, "How do you do" They're really saying "I love you." I hear babies cry, I watch then grow They'll learn much more than I'll ever know; And I think to myself, What a wonderful world; Yes, I think to myself, What a wonderful world. Oh yeah! ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I spent nine days in the Downtown Los Angeles City Jail. The judge gave me a suspended sentence and I went to work that night - wailed just like nothing happened. What strucked me funny though - I laughed real loud when several movie stars came up to the bandstand while we played a dance set and told me, when they heard about me getting caught with marijuana, they thought marijuana was a chick. Woo boy - that really fractured me! ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I've Got the World on a String, ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
A good crowd had formed along the sidewalk and the concrete ledge that bordered Louis Armstrong Park. The anticipation was dizzying...New Orleans had the big-boy parades and [Jackson & Billy] couldn't wait to attend a second line... ~ Hunter Murphy
Louis Armstrong quotes by Hunter Murphy
Red beans and ricely yours. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
You can't play anything on a horn that Louis Armstrong hasn't played ~ Miles Davis
Louis Armstrong quotes by Miles Davis
We don't play slow and we don't play fast, we play half fast ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Jazz is what I play for a living. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
There is no such thing as 'on the way out' as long as you are still doing something interesting and good; you're in the business because you're breathing. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Back home, he sleeps in Clarence's bed. Then he moves across and arranges the pillows beside the ghost of his wife. All three of them lie down together. The pulse of Louis Armstrong sounds out from the record player, the notes moving tenderly through his torment. ~ Colum McCann
Louis Armstrong quotes by Colum McCann
If you have to ask what jazz is you will never know. Louis Armstrong ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
English banjo players really were a law unto themselves - you don't find that kind of brisk banjo playing on the original Louis Armstrong or Bix Beiderbecke records. ~ Pete Townshend
Louis Armstrong quotes by Pete Townshend
In my opinion, Louis Armstrong is the greatest trumpet stylist of all time and has influenced every trumpet player of his time and long after ~ Al Hirt
Louis Armstrong quotes by Al Hirt
Mrs. Nixon and I share the sorrow of millions of Americans at the death of Louis Armstrong. One of the architects of an American art form, a free and individual spirit, and an artist of worldwide fame, his great talents and magnificent spirit added richness and pleasure to all our lives. ~ Richard M. Nixon
Louis Armstrong quotes by Richard M. Nixon
Man, if you have to ask what it [jazz] is, you'll never know. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
The best I can do is stay happy. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
You blows who you is. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I remember when I first rocked in it was a great big dance hall and Tommy Young was blowing trombone and Louis [Armstrong] was singing a tune and it was just Satchmo and you could hear it resounding through the dance hall and people were dancing. It was a highlight. ~ Gordon Lightfoot
Louis Armstrong quotes by Gordon Lightfoot
What [Louis Armstrong] does is real, and true, and honest, and simple, and even noble. Every time this man puts his trumpet to his lips, even if only to practice three notes, he does it with his whole soul. ~ Leonard Bernstein
Louis Armstrong quotes by Leonard Bernstein
I don't get involved in politics. I just blow my horn. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden. ~ Mose Allison
Louis Armstrong quotes by Mose Allison
The guitar is a means of expressing music, When you get into the emotional side of it, then it's not the guitar that matters so much as the music itself. But the guitar is the vehicle I use. It's how I express myself. As for the emotional side, music takes up where language leaves off. To try and verbalize what music says, emotionally and spiritually, is futile. Let me put it this way, Louis Armstrong once said if you've got to ask, you'll never know. ~ Charlie Byrd
Louis Armstrong quotes by Charlie Byrd
A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I try to improvise like Les Young, Louis Armstrong or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel. ~ Billie Holiday
Louis Armstrong quotes by Billie Holiday
When I was young and very green, I worte that tune, Sister Kate, and someone said that's fine, let me publish it for you. I'll give you fifty dollars. I didn't know nothing about papers, and business, and I sold it outright. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I'll bet right now most of the youngsters and hot club fans who hear the name Storyville hasn't the least idea that it consisted of some of the biggest prostitutes in the world ... Standing in their doorways nightly in their fine and beautiful negligees
faintly calling to the boys as they passed their cribs. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong, who learned to be in exquisite dress, came from the bottom, and he's not a trash can. ~ Stanley Crouch
Louis Armstrong quotes by Stanley Crouch
Music is either good or bad, and it's got to be learned. You got to have balance. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Intimate singing had a wonderful style in the '30s and '40s. It came out of Broadway and the jazz of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. But Sinatra created the best romantic era that we've ever had. ~ Tony Bennett
Louis Armstrong quotes by Tony Bennett
The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Some of you young folks been saying to me, 'Hey Pops, what you mean what a wonderful world? How about all them wars all over the place? You call them wonderful? And how about hunger and pollution? They ain't so wonderful either.' But how about listening to old Pops for a minute. It seems to me it ain't the world that's so bad, but what we're doing to it, and all I'm saying is see what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love, baby, love. That's the secret. Yeah. If lots more of us loved each other, we'd solve lots more problems. And man, this world would be a gasser. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
There's only two ways to sum up music; either it's good or it's bad. If it's good you don't mess about it, you just enjoy it. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Think of this: If it weren't for greed, intolerance, hate, passion and murder, you would have no works of art, no great buildings, no medical science, no Mozart, no van Gogh, no Muppets and no Louis Armstrong. The civilization that devises the infrastructure to allow these wonderful things to be created is essentially a product of war - death and suffering - and commerce - deceit and inequality. Even your liberty to discuss the shortcomings of your own species has its foundations in blood and hardship." "That's a depressing thought, ~ Jasper Fforde
Louis Armstrong quotes by Jasper Fforde
There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
What is Jazz? Dude, if you have to ask, you'll never know. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
The greatness of America is that it produces exuberant geniuses like Louis Armstrong and Fred Astaire and Leonard Bernstein. We are meant to be a jazzy people who talk big and jump on the table and dance; we aren't supposed to be dopey and glum and brood over old injuries. ~ Garrison Keillor
Louis Armstrong quotes by Garrison Keillor
The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell! ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
I think the important thing to understand first and foremost about Michael Jackson is that he was the international emblem of the African American blues spiritual impulse that goes back through slavery - Jim Crow, Jane Crow, up to the present moment, through a Louis Armstrong, through a Ma Rainey, through a Bessie Smith, all the way to John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone. ~ Cornel West
Louis Armstrong quotes by Cornel West
Never play a thing the same way twice. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
You ask: What is it that philosophers have called qualitative states? I answer, only half in jest: As Louis Armstrong said when asked what jazz is, 'If you got to ask, you ain't never gonna get to know.' ~ Ned Block
Louis Armstrong quotes by Ned Block
Louis Armstrong said you have to live a life. And that's right. If you don't live a life, you don't got nothin' to come out your horn. ~ Sally Field
Louis Armstrong quotes by Sally Field
You will never know what the meaning of Jazz is if ask what it means. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
Unless you know what it is I ain't never going to be able to explain it to you. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
It's getting almost so bad a colored man hasn't got any country. ~ Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong quotes by Louis Armstrong
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