Illinois Jacquet Quotes

And, well of course, Count Basie, and I think all of the black bands of the late thirties and early forties, bands with real players. They had an influence on everybody, not just drummers.

As late as the early '50s, jazz was still, for the most part, a genuinely popular music, a utilitarian, song-based idiom to which ordinary people could dance if they felt like it.

We all listened to a lot of recorded music, especially American jazz, modern jazz, and that's where our studies were and our inspiration came from.

There was a period which I refer to as the 'Golden Age of Jazz,' which sort of encompasses the middle Thirties through the Sixties, we had a lot of great innovators, all creating things which will last the world for a long, long time.

In the Bay Area, there was a resurgence of Dixieland jazz in the '40s - there was the Frisco Jazz Band, and Lu Watters and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band.

Now, the instrumentation in the jazz band and the jazz dance band has gone through many evolutions. For instance, in the 'twenties the tradition was two or three saxophones.

Oh yeah, that was the thing to do at that time. This was before the new wave of bebop started.

The Big Band Era is my era. People say, 'Where did you get your style from?' I did the Big Band Era on guitar. That's the best way I could explain it.

All of the most popular music of the '30s and '40s were deeply informed by jazz.

Big band music, to me, it really has three key elements. First is the lyrics are really sweet, and they're just really family-friendly. The second thing is the music is jazz music, so the music is complicated enough to hold your attention for 5 or 6 million plays. That makes the songs interesting. The last part is the fact that it's danceable.

For years, Jazz At The Philharmonic albums were the only ones of their kind.

Be-bop wasn't developed in any deliberate way.

I used to play too with a boy who played a saxophone. We didn't play no blues, we'd play a lot of love songs - 'Stardust', 'Blue Moon', 'Out Cold Again', 'Sophisticated Lady', 'Stars Fell On Alabama', a lot of different stuff.

Swing will never sound as good as it did in the '40s.

Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That's why I wanted the clarinet.

I've always loved jazz.

Artie Shaw was way ahead of most clarinetists and most jazz players.

I grew up around jazz. I love jazz.

As for my band, well, my mentors were Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, and no one had a band more smartly dressed than Duke.

Swing is my favorite kind of music.

And I loved Fats Waller. I love his instrumental abilities, his vocal abilities and his sense of humor.

The three great moments of my life had to be the concerts of Ellington in 1938, Dizzy in '48, and Ella in '52.

The first records I heard were from Dizzy Gillespie and people like that.

The William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh... was the place where Champagne Music was born.

My father was incredible on trumpet and played with the likes of Duke Ellington and Count Basie.