You can't play anything on a horn that Louis Armstrong hasn't played
What [Louis Armstrong] does is real, and true, and honest, and simple, and even noble. Every time this man puts his trumpet to his lips, even if only to practice three notes, he does it with his whole soul.
I wouldn't argue that anyone living can play the trumpet better than Wynton Marsalis.
I was minding my own business when something says to me, "you ought to blow trumpet." I have just been trying ever since.
Having heard Clifford Brown play all those fast runs, I used to really practice Clarke trumpet exercises all day long so that I could play fast. That's all I wanted to do. I was like a child with a toy.
I played trumpet in school once because I joined band because a cute boy played trumpet too. And I was really bad at trumpet.
Clifford Brown was in the jazz circles considered to be probably the greatest trumpet player who ever lived.
Somehow, trumpet is the reference point for me - it was actually my first instrument.
Nobody else even approaches the trumpet like [Sweets Edison] does: Never too much and always plenty. He's the greatest trumpet player to play along with singers. He exactly knows how to play with you, how to answer you about what you just sang ... On top of that, he has some great sense of humor, both as a musician and as a man. Every time I see him, I'm laughing so much. Sweets is impeccable and incomparable.
