famous jazz quotes...

something a little different -


"I wish you wouldn't make the strings such an important part of your arrangements because frankly they're only a tax dodge!"

- Tommy Dorsey
(to arranger Nelson Riddle)

"Tastes are created by the business interests. How else can you explain the popularity of Al Hirt?"

- Charles Mingus

"The outer space beings are my brothers. They sent me here. They already know my music."

- Sun Ra

"I discovered early in life that if you take gym first period, you can go into the wrestling room and sit in the corner and sleep."

- Paul Desmond

"I was very happy and secure until I went into the army. Then I started to feel there was something I should know that I didn't know."

- Bill Evans

"Are big bands coming back? Sure, every football season."

- Woody Herman

"Blues is to jazz what yeast is to bread - without it, it's flat."

- Carmen McCrae

'Giving jazz the Congressional seal of approval is a little like making Huck Finn an honorary Boy Scout.'

- Melvin Maddocks

'I don't want no drummer. I set the tempo."

- Bessie Smith

"I am the world's laziest writer."

- Oscar Peterson

"It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play."

- Dizzy Gillespie

"I don't mind being the butt of a joke-if it's a funny joke."

- Kenny G

"Those people were mavericks. The only person who wanted them was me. I mean, was Gene Krupa hard to get? Was Bunny Berigan hard to get?"

- Benny Goodman

"It's not the mistakes that count, it's what you do after them that counts."

- Thelonious Monk

and to prove Carmen McRae correct, here's a little vintage Koko Taylor who just left us after 80 marvelous years.



Wang Dang Doodle
sung by Koko Taylor
written by Willie Dixon


Tell automatic Slim
Tell razor totin' Jim
Tell butcher knife
Toting Nanny
Tell fast talking fanny
We're gonna pitch a ball
Down to the union hall

We're gonna romp
And trump till midnight
We're gonna fuss
And fight till daylight
We're gonna get your
Wang dang doodle
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long

Tell cooda-crawling Ray
To tell abyssinia Ned
To tell old pistol Pete
To tell everybody he meets
Tonight we need no rest
We're gonna really
Throw a mess
We're gonna knock down
All the windows
We're gonna kick down
All the doors
We're gonna get your
Wang dang doodle
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long

Tell fats
And washbone Sam
Everybody gonna jam
Tell shaking boxcar Joe
We got
Sawdust on the floor
Now tell Peggy
And Colin Die
We're gonna have
A heck of a time
Now when the fish
Scent fill the air
There'll be
Snuff juice everywhere
We're gonna get your
Wang dang doodle
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long