Street Performances Quotes

In New Orleans, people are still influenced by one another. You got these bands that play every week on Frenchmen Street, and on their breaks, they might go see the reggae band that's right next door. You might get the musicians from the reggae band to sit in with the brass musicians. Everyone is having fun.

I had two major activities as a child. I was trying to put on shows with kids in my street, or I was drawing. Actually, what I'm doing now is exactly what I was doing then. Either I'm drawing, or I'm gathering people for a common project. The only difference is that now they are paying me for that.

I grew up with park jams. That's how I knew about rap... The local MCs would grab the mic and start rapping. I just used to be so in awe and fascinated and like, 'Wow, this is amazing!' But I would never, ever touch the mic. Heck no.

In my vocal, I think you can hear something of my earlier times when I'd sing in subway halls for the echo and perform doo-wop on street corners. But I had a lot of influences, too - singers like Sam Cooke, Brook Benton and Roy Hamilton.

I wasn't in a lot of rock and roll bands. I was in jug bands and things when I was in school.

Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.

I've grown up in the Treme, and I played in a bunch of brass bands. My brother, James Andrews, had a brass band.

Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon. I'd go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I'd sing and play.

I wanted to be a gymnast when I was young - I used to do backflips and all those things in the street and at home - but my grandma said it was dangerous and made me stop.

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?

Growing up in Boston and dancing in the streets, you see a lot of things.

I think it's time to travel, start gathering some real right-in-there experiences with street musicians around the world.

It was at a performance art space that's no longer around, Gusto House... All of these great performers from all over the country lived on the Lower East Side, and they would take somebody's living room that opened right onto the street, open the door and charge tickets and put up chairs.

Before I had a record deal, I was living in New York and playing anywhere I could, from somebody's house to an open mic to coffeeshops.

I have composed several pieces which are performed outdoors, not only in the auditoria.

That this city has second lines - it's something I'm proud of. When the bands come back from the cemetery, they'll play something up - something like 'I'll Be Glad When You're Dead (You Rascal You)' - that will bring the people back to life.

When I was trekking across Brooklyn, looking for MC battles - and there were plenty of them - I never dreamed I'd be at this podium.

I love everything about Delhi, mostly the fact that people here never fail to react to music.

Recording in Jamaica is like nothing else. The studios are always closed in America. But in Jamaica, the studio doors are wide open, and there's music blasting out in the street. You can see the reaction of people immediately.