InspiringQuotes

Louis Armstrong Quotes:

Louis Armstrong quotes

Ocupation: Trumpeter

Life: August 4, 1901 - July 6, 1971

Birthday: August 4

Death: July 6

famous quotes

What we play is life.

Topics: Music, Inspirational Life, Live Life

Quotation Louis Armstrong Seems to me it ain t the world that s Quotes

Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them.

source: - 1968 Quoted in the Observer, 21 Apr.

Topics: Inspiring, Music, Retirement, Jazz Musician, Inspirational Retirement

Quotation Louis Armstrong Musicians don t retire they stop when there s no Quotes

To jazz, or not to jazz, there is no question!

Topics: Jazz, Jazz Music

Quotation Louis Armstrong Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of Quotes

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician.

Topics: Memories, Important, Musician, Jazz Musician, Jazz Music

Quotation Louis Armstrong If you have to ask what jazz is you ll Quotes

It really puzzles me to see ***** connected with narcotics dope and all of that stuff. It is a thousand times better than whiskey. It is an assistant and a friend.

Topics: Marijuana, Dope, Stuff

Quotation Louis Armstrong What we play is life Quotes

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.

Topics: Funny, Music, Song, Modern Music, Folk Music

We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

Topics: Music, African American, Jazz, Notes Music

[Bebop is] Chinese music.

Topics: Chinese, Bebop, Jazz, Chinese Music

All them weird chords which don't mean a thing...you got no melody to remember, and no beat to dance to

Topics: Mean, Jazz, Remember

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.

Topics: Music, Memories, Night

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans. When that's where you left your heart. The moonlight on the bayou a creole tune that fills the air. I dream about magnolias in bloom and I'm wishin' I was there.

Topics: Dream, Heart, Mean, Magnolias, Bayou

If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.

source: - "Jazz Giants of the 20th Century/ Taglines". www.imdb.com. 2007.

Topics: Music, Jazz, Jazz And Blues, Jazz Band, Jazz Musician

Even If I have two three days off, you still have to blow that horn. You have to keep up those chops... I have to warm up everyday for at least an hour.

Topics: Blow, Two, Everyday

A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original.

source: - Alluding to his many imitators. Quoted in David Pickering Brewer's Twentieth Century Music (1994).

Topics: Cat, People, Lines, Mona Lisa

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

Topics: Music, Heart, Jazz

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.

Topics: Heart, Eye, New Orleans

Making money ain't nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you're just as graveyard dead as he is.

source: - "Louis Armstrong - The Reluctant Millionaire". "Ebony" Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 1, November 1964.

Topics: Cat, Sick, Littles, Winos

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.

Topics: Two, Way, Jazz

Never play a thing the same way twice.

Topics: Music, Play, Way

My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn.

Topics: Music, Blow, Soul

You blows who you is.

Topics: Music, Blow, Jazz

I don't need words. It's all in the phrasing.

Topics: Music, Needs

Never play anything the same way twice.

Topics: Music, Play, Way, Jazz Musician, Playing Jazz

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.

source: - Spoken intro to "What a Wonderful World", 1970.

Topics: Baby, War, Mean, Wonderful World, Baby Love

When you're with another tea smoker it makes you feel a special kinship,

Topics: Tea, Special, Feels

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.

Topics: Fashion, Breathing, Long

Each man has his own music bubbling up inside him.

Topics: Inspirational, Men, Jazz And Life

If you still have to ask, shame on you

Topics: Shame, Shame On You, Stills

The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell!

Topics: Government, People, Way

White folks still in the lead.

Topics: White, Racism, Folks

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.

Topics: Dream, Kissing, Giving

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.

Topics: Kings, Looks, Parades, Mardi Gras

We don't play slow and we don't play fast, we play half fast

Topics: Guitar, Play, Half

Music is either good or bad, and it's got to be learned. You got to have balance.

Topics: Music, Balance, Music Is

I got a simple rule about everybody. If you don't treat me right - shame on you.

Topics: Relationship, Simple, Shame, Treat Me Right, Shame On You

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.

Topics: Men, Feel Good, Good Man, Smokers

As many bands as you heard [in New Orleans], that's how many bands you heard playing right. I thought I was in Heaven playing second trumpet in the Tuxedo Brass Band -- and they had some funeral marches that would just touch your heart, they were so beautiful.

Topics: Beautiful, Heart, New Orleans, Tuxedos, Brass Bands

It ain't whatcha say, it's the way howcha say it.

Topics: Communication, Way

And I think to myself what a wonderful world. Oh, yeah....

source: - Song: What A Wonderful World

Topics: Thinking, Words Of Wisdom, World, Wonderful World, Shaking Hands

Not too slow, not too fast. Kind of like half-fast.

Topics: Music, Half, Kind

If ya ain't got it in ya, ya can't blow it out.

Topics: Music, Blow

If it hadn't been for Jazz, there wouldn't be no rock and roll.

Topics: Music, Rocks, Rock And Roll

Red beans and ricely yours.

Topics: Vegetables, Red, Beans

Love is talkative passion.

Topics: Disappointment, Passion, Love Is, Talkative

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!

Topics: Gratitude, Baby, Cheer, Say I Love You, Wonderful World

My life has always been my music, it's always come first, but the music ain't worth nothing if you can't lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience, 'cause what you're there for is to please the people.

source: - "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Music, People, Firsts

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.

Topics: Baby, Giving, Secret

Don't do nothing halfway, else you find yourself dropping more than can be picked up.

Topics: Finding Yourself, Dropping, Halfway

I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you. And I think to myself what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. And I think to myself what a wonderful world

source: - Song: What A Wonderful World

Topics: Blessed, Dark, Thinking, Wonderful World, Red Rose

It's America's classical music ... this becomes our tradition ... the bottom line of any country in the world is what did we contribute to the world? ... we contributed Louis Armstrong

Topics: Country, America, World, Armstrong, Bottom Line

When you're dead, you're done.

Topics: Done, Jazz

Jazz is what I play for a living.

Topics: Play, Jazz, Playing Jazz

I've Got the World on a String,

Topics: World, Strings

I don't let my mouth say nothin' my head can't stand....

Topics: Mouths

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.

Topics: Music, Couple, Blow, Playing Up

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.

Topics: Cat, Trying, Firsts

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.

Topics: Giving, Green, Tunes

You will never know what the meaning of Jazz is if ask what it means.

Topics: Mean, Jazz

I'm a spade, you're an ofay. Let's play.

Topics: Play, Jazz, Spades

Unless you know what it is I ain't never going to be able to explain it to you.

Topics: Able

Seems to me, it aint the world that's so bad but what we're doin' 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...

source: - Spoken intro to "What a Wonderful World", 1970.

Topics: Baby, Giving, Secret, Wonderful World, Baby Love

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.

Topics: Life, Music, Practice, Jazz Band, Jazz Musician

The best I can do is stay happy.

source: - Source: blankonblank.org

Topics: Stay Happy, Can Do, I Can

It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics dope and all of that stuff. It is a thousand times better than whiskey. It is an assistant and a friend.

Topics: Weed, Marijuana, Dope, Stoners, Medical Marijuana

There are Two Secrets to Success: 1. Don't tell ANYONE Everything you know 2.If you have to ask what Jazz is, you'll never know.

Topics: Two, Secret, Jazz

You've got to be good or as bad as the devil.

source: - Source: blankonblank.org

Topics: Devil, Be Good

If you don't understand it, don't mess with it.

Topics: Mess, Ifs

I don't get involved in politics. I just blow my horn.

Topics: Blow, Horns, Get Involved

You got to love to be able to play

Topics: Play, Able

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.

source: - "Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans". Book by Louis Armstrong, 1954.

Topics: Crazy, Fighting, Cutting

Musicians in my day had nicknames. My name was "Satchel Mouth," like a doctor's satchel. When I went to England this fellow was strictly English, and he was editor of the newspaper there. He shook my hand after I got off the train and said, "Hello, Satchmo." So right away my trombone player said, "Mmm, the man thinks you have mo' mouth than Satchel Mouth." So I was stuck with it, and it turned out all right.

source: - Source: blankonblank.org

Topics: Player, Men, Thinking, Trombone

You either have it or you don't. You play your horn just like you sing a song or a hymn. If it's in your heart, you express yourself in the tune.

source: - Source: blankonblank.org

Topics: Song, Heart, Hymns

At first it was just a misdemeanor, but then you lost the "mis-de" and you just got meaner and meaner.

Topics: Marijuana, Firsts, Lost, Misdemeanors

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.

source: - Source: blankonblank.org

Topics: Mean, Blow, Two

As a youngster in the little orphanage home in New Orleans, I was the bugler of the institution. When I got to be around 13 or 14 years old, they took me off the bugle and put me in the little brass band.

source: - Source: blankonblank.org

Topics: Home, Brass Bands, New Orleans, Brass, Orphanage

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!

Topics: Stars, Real, Night, Downtown Los Angeles, Suspended

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.

Topics: Beautiful, Boys, Names

It's getting almost so bad a colored man hasn't got any country.

source: - "What Louis Armstrong Really Thinks" by Ben Schwartz, www.newyorker.com. February 25, 2014.

Topics: Country, Men, America

A lot of the musicians asked me if when I hit my high-Cs on the records I had a clarinet take the notes. Some [thought] I had invented some kind of gadget so I could play high register. They weren't satisfied until they handed me a trumpet that they had with them and had me swing it. Then they cheered.

Topics: Play, Swings, Musician, Clarinet

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.

source: - Source: blankonblank.org

Topics: Play, Musician, Chance

Related Authors

Ahmad Alaadeen quotes

Ahmad Alaadeen
Al Hirt quotes

Al Hirt
Al Jolson quotes

Al Jolson
Alan Lomax quotes

Alan Lomax
Alberta Hunter quotes

Alberta Hunter
Allen Toussaint quotes

Allen Toussaint
Aretha Franklin quotes

Aretha Franklin
Benny Goodman quotes

Benny Goodman
Bessie Smith quotes

Bessie Smith
Billie Holiday quotes

Billie Holiday
Billy Eckstine quotes

Billy Eckstine
Billy Strayhorn quotes

Billy Strayhorn
Bing Crosby quotes

Bing Crosby
Bix Beiderbecke quotes

Bix Beiderbecke
Bobby Short quotes

Bobby Short
Brian Morton quotes

Brian Morton
Buddy Bolden quotes

Buddy Bolden
Cab Calloway quotes

Cab Calloway
Cannonball Adderley quotes

Cannonball Adderley
Carmen McRae quotes

Carmen McRae
Charlie Barnet quotes

Charlie Barnet
Charlie Parker quotes

Charlie Parker
Chet Baker quotes

Chet Baker
Chick Webb quotes

Chick Webb
Chubby Checker quotes

Chubby Checker
Clyde Otis quotes

Clyde Otis
Cootie Williams quotes

Cootie Williams
Count Basie quotes

Count Basie
Crystal Waters quotes

Crystal Waters
Dan Block quotes

Dan Block
Dan Morgenstern quotes

Dan Morgenstern
Danny Barker quotes

Danny Barker
Danny Kaye quotes

Danny Kaye
Dave Brubeck quotes

Dave Brubeck
Dizzy Gillespie quotes

Dizzy Gillespie
Dr. John quotes

Dr. John
Duke Ellington quotes

Duke Ellington
Earl Hines quotes

Earl Hines
Ed Thigpen quotes

Ed Thigpen
Eddie Condon quotes

Eddie Condon
Eddie Harris quotes

Eddie Harris
Eden Ahbez quotes

Eden Ahbez
Edith Piaf quotes

Edith Piaf
Elaine Dundy quotes

Elaine Dundy
Elden Benge quotes

Elden Benge
Ella Fitzgerald quotes

Ella Fitzgerald
Esther Vilar quotes

Esther Vilar
Ethel Waters quotes

Ethel Waters
Eubie Blake quotes

Eubie Blake
Eva Jessye quotes

Eva Jessye
Fats Waller quotes

Fats Waller
Frank Sinatra quotes

Frank Sinatra
Frankie Manning quotes

Frankie Manning
Fred Waring quotes

Fred Waring
Freddie Green quotes

Freddie Green
Gail Buckley quotes

Gail Buckley
Gene Krupa quotes

Gene Krupa
George Gershwin quotes

George Gershwin
George Wein quotes

George Wein
Giuseppe Venuti quotes

Giuseppe Venuti
Glenn Miller quotes

Glenn Miller
Gloria Jones quotes

Gloria Jones
Grange Lady Haig Rutan quotes

Grange Lady Haig Rutan
Guy Consolmagno quotes

Guy Consolmagno
Guy Lombardo quotes

Guy Lombardo
Harry James quotes

Harry James
Hoagy Carmichael quotes

Hoagy Carmichael
Irving Berlin quotes

Irving Berlin
Jack Teagarden quotes

Jack Teagarden
Jake Shimabukuro quotes

Jake Shimabukuro
Jay McShann quotes

Jay McShann
Jean Bach quotes

Jean Bach
Jelly Roll Morton quotes

Jelly Roll Morton
Jimmy Bertrand quotes

Jimmy Bertrand
Jimmy Rushing quotes

Jimmy Rushing
Jimmy Scott quotes

Jimmy Scott
Jo Jones quotes

Jo Jones
John Coltrane quotes

John Coltrane
Joseph F. Lamb quotes

Joseph F. Lamb
Josephine Baker quotes

Josephine Baker
Kathleen Winsor quotes

Kathleen Winsor
Kenny G quotes

Kenny G
Langston Hughes quotes

Langston Hughes
Leonard Feather quotes

Leonard Feather
Lester Bowie quotes

Lester Bowie
Lil Hardin Armstrong quotes

Lil Hardin Armstrong
Link Wray quotes

Link Wray
Lionel Hampton quotes

Lionel Hampton
Louis Jordan quotes

Louis Jordan
Louis Prima quotes

Louis Prima
Ma Rainey quotes

Ma Rainey
Mahalia Jackson quotes

Mahalia Jackson
Martha Raye quotes

Martha Raye
Mary Crosby quotes

Mary Crosby
Maynard Ferguson quotes

Maynard Ferguson
Mel Torme quotes

Mel Torme
Miles Davis quotes

Miles Davis
Nat King Cole quotes

Nat King Cole
Natalie Cole quotes

Natalie Cole
Neil Armstrong quotes

Neil Armstrong
Nell Carter quotes

Nell Carter
Nina Hagen quotes

Nina Hagen
Oscar Peterson quotes

Oscar Peterson
Paul Robeson quotes

Paul Robeson
Paul Whiteman quotes

Paul Whiteman
Percy Heath quotes

Percy Heath
Pete Fountain quotes

Pete Fountain
Ray Charles quotes

Ray Charles
Rev. James Cleveland quotes

Rev. James Cleveland
Richard Galliano quotes

Richard Galliano
Roy Eldridge quotes

Roy Eldridge
Rudy Vallee quotes

Rudy Vallee
Rufus Jones quotes

Rufus Jones
Ruth Brown quotes

Ruth Brown
Sam Tanenhaus quotes

Sam Tanenhaus
Sarah Vaughan quotes

Sarah Vaughan
Scott Joplin quotes

Scott Joplin
Shorty Rogers quotes

Shorty Rogers
Steve Lacy quotes

Steve Lacy
T. S. Monk quotes

T. S. Monk
Teddy Wilson quotes

Teddy Wilson
Terry Teachout quotes

Terry Teachout
Thelonious Monk quotes

Thelonious Monk
Tiny Tim quotes

Tiny Tim
Tito Puente quotes

Tito Puente
Tommy Dorsey quotes

Tommy Dorsey
Tony Bennett quotes

Tony Bennett
Tony Orlando quotes

Tony Orlando
Warner Oland quotes

Warner Oland
William Christopher Handy quotes

William Christopher Handy
Woody Herman quotes

Woody Herman
Zutty Singleton quotes

Zutty Singleton
Gary Giddins quotes

Gary Giddins
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole quotes

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Keali'i Reichel quotes

Keali'i Reichel

Authors starting with Letter

Topics starting with Letter