Donald Byrd Quotes

Kansas City, I would say, did more for jazz music, black music, than any other influence at all. Almost all their joints that they had there, they used black bands. Most musicians who amounted to anything, they would flock to Kansas City because that's the place where jobs were plentiful.

I think there was a lot competition in the rock scene.

If you started in New York you were dealing with the biggest guys in the world. You're dealing with Charlie Parker and all the big bands and everything. We got more experience working in Seattle.

Guys like Otis Blackwell and Bobby Darin, and all the guys who were writing songs for Elvis at the time, just hanging around, writing songs, talking about music.

My friend Fred Coury, the drummer in '80s rock band Cinderella, told me that in the rock world, you're either still there, or you're struggling to get back to where you were.

I've met a lot of jazz musicians in my day, and they're all funny.

One of the mistakes I made was believing that the rock n' roll genre as a genre was much more free than the whole pop or R&B scene.

Today jazz is still very much alive. Everywhere I go there's a new generation of musicians.

There are times when what's happening in rock is the best music in the world, and there are times when there is nothing worthwhile at all.

I think I definitely would have ended up in some kind of show business. I was very interested in music when I was younger. This was back when Crosby, Stills and Nash were around.

Diana Krall I met in, I think it was Canada. She's a lovely lady. Her husband, Elvis Costello, is a great star.

In the '70s... there were rock players, and there were jazz players.

The world wants rock bands to be idiots.

Singing rock n' roll - they called it singing for the devil. But we all wanted an opportunity to compete in the music industry, and that was the opportunity.

This is show business, and there's room for the shows and the personalities. But I think there's also room for music, for people to play music, and there seems to be an audience developing that's willing to go listen to music again, rather than just be blown away by drum machines and choreography.

I studied jazz at home with my grandparents. They always had jazz dudes at the house, but I didn't study formally. I just hung around a lot of musicians.

I seen a lot of artists be hot for a minute, and then that's it, and somebody else come in.

Rock n' roll's had a good time out of me - and I've had a very good time out of rock n' roll.

The Batiste family is a large musical family in Louisiana, out in New Orleans. People go to New Orleans, and if they go to any club, four days out of the week I guarantee you that you will find a Batiste playing in the ensemble.

I go back to, like, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Elvis. I listen to everything.

Amplification of guitars revolutionized the popular music scene. Youngsters look for quick fame and big money with amplified guitars and working with rock groups.

I come to America because if you're a rock 'n' roll musician you should come here every chance you get.

I don't know if i have a 'take' on L.A. The music community is enormous, from the studio musicians to the bands trying to 'make it' to the indie bands... so many bands... it can be overwhelming. But it seems healthy.

I have written for, very fortunately, some great singers from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley.

How can a song all about struggling with the afterglow of fame thrust someone into fame? How can a lyric like, 'I'm just a singer who already blew his shot,' give a singer another shot? I don't know... but it's funny.