Second Line Quotes

At the end of the day, I'm a New Orleans musician. Whatever that means.

In my hometown of New Orleans, grief is a public spectacle that, somewhat paradoxically, necessitates celebration. The dead are not mourned so much as they are posthumously venerated with music and dance.

I don't know what America would be without New Orleans and the music.

Jazz came out of New Orleans, and that was the forerunner of everything. You mix jazz with European rhythms, and that's rock n' roll, really. You can make the argument that it all started on the streets of New Orleans with the jazz funerals.

I grew up listening to the Neville Brothers and the Rebirth Brass Band.

New Orleans is gumbo. You get so man types of things... jazz, folk, Zydeco.

That's the way New Orleans is. It's driven by the music.

Since I'm born here, my music will always have some New Orleans elements.

You've got different people that have different views of New Orleans. When you say 'New Orleans,' you have people who just think of the Neville Brothers. You've got people that think of Louis Armstrong. You say 'New Orleans,' and you've got people that think of Lil' Wayne.

I come to New Orleans so often that, one day soon, someone's going to declare me a native. I love the food. I love the music. I serve on the board of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.

Those type of people [in New Orleans] keep me happy and just smiling, you know? I just go hang out and talk with them and they tell me all types of old stories, and sometimes I might even pull my horn out in the middle of the block, and they're playing on beer bottles and different things, and we just do a little second line type thing, just us, four or five people, who are just having fun. That makes me day to be able to do that and go hang out with the people in the (Treme) neighborhood, and to do some shows around town, you know?

'Redemption' sounds like a jubilee. Like a second line, if you will.

In South Louisiana, every single thing we do is jazz or zydeco.

In New Orleans, music is part of the culture. You're raised with it, from the cradle to the grave, and all in-between.

Music and dance is part of everything in New Orleans. So I grew up appreciating it all.

New Orleans, more than many places I know, actually tangibly lives its culture. It's not just a residual of life; it's a part of life. Music is at every major milestone of our life: birth, marriage, death. It's our culture.

I grew up right in the heart of Treme, so it was a real music neighborhood, and there was a bunch of bands like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band around.

I've always loved New Orleans music. I always loved it when the Neville Brothers opened up for the Grateful Dead and the Dirty Dozen and all that.

I always have a little bit of Brazil and New Orleans in my band.

There's definitely that tribal Africana thing going on in my sound. It's that marching band, second-line music, that Creole-influence in the kick, and the snare that drives everything for me. I think it's really what's separated my sound from a lot of the R&B and pop music out there.

All New Orleans music is based off dance music, even jazz.

As a kid, I would wake up, and there'd be a jazz funeral while I'm walking to school. And when I come home, you can find Rebirth band playing for a birthday party the same day.

However, because Britain is young and exciting, I did show my second line here once or twice.