Words matter. These are the best Trombone Shorty Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Actually, I started off playing by ear and being around a bunch of musicians playing in the streets in the different parades.
If I have to be considered any type of jazz artist, it would be New Orleans jazz because New Orleans jazz never forgot that jazz is dance music and jazz is fun. I’m more influenced by that style of jazz than anything else.
Life would be pretty boring if I didn’t explore. It’s about letting my ears take me on an adventure to soak in everything I can.
I just want to spearhead and lead a new style of New Orleans music.
One thing I’ve learned in life is that natural talent only takes you so far, and I’ve always wanted to grow.
Music brings unity.
No matter what setting I play in, I will always be New Orleans. It’s one of the only cities where you can hang out with the Marsalis family, the Neville brothers, whoever it might be, and we all play together.
It’s very important to me that I at least know the history of the music.
New Orleans made me who I am.
My parents pushed me toward trombone because they didn’t need another trumpet player.
New Orleans is like a big musical gumbo. The sound I have is from being in the city my whole life.
It’s like drinking water. You have to have water every day, and music is like water for me.
If I can just play, it doesn’t matter where we are… Japan, Australia, or here in the neighborhood.
When we’re ready to do the dress rehearsal, we’ll rehearse in the dark. No lights. The reason why I do that is because I don’t want the band to rely on me for anything. ‘Cause anything can happen – I might stop singing or unplug the mic, just so everybody knows: Keep going, no matter what.
To be able to do what you truly love for a living is a gift.
The only thing we try and do is just be a part of the gumbo that New Orleans is.
I’ve been playing music since I was four, so it’s part of my life. It’s all I know. It’s just a part of my everyday living.
I had a lot of older musicians looking out for me, teaching me, and showing me things when they saw how interested I was in music from a young age. They would take me to the side and just play some things in my ear, and I would try to play it back to them.
I’ve grown up in the Treme, and I played in a bunch of brass bands. My brother, James Andrews, had a brass band.
I’m very proud of ‘Backatown,’ and usually I don’t like to listen to my records.
Music should be pushed forward.
We didn’t know music had all these names. We made up SupaFunkRock on a plane when a flight attendant asked us what we play.
What’s crazy about my life is that the biggest things that have happened just happen.
I’m big fans of all those musicians, B.B. King, Mick Jagger – they’re all on my iPod.
I have to continue to make the older musicians proud and brush up on my skills.
No matter what kinds of problems we might be going through, or what kinds of problems the world might be going through, music is the place where we can all get along. We can all jam.
Most people don’t even know what a trombone is. It’s not that popular as a front instrument… I picked it up and fell in love with it as a kid. It’s a difficult instrument, but I like doing things that seem impossible.
The music always takes us to different places. We’ll just continue to play and see what doors open from there.
Everyone who hears our music loves it, but how many people get to hear it?
You always want to learn, you know.
I never really listened to any particular trombone players.
Certain jazz musicians just copy what was done 100 years ago. The music won’t grow if nobody takes a risk.
I didn’t grow up during the time that Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis and all those people were playing. So it’s not really my responsibility to keep it up, what they were doing.
I was put on so many different musical stages growing up that I didn’t think about what kind of music we played. I just thought music was music.
I’ve had a strong will power to become one of the best. And I’m not gonna let nothing stop me from going to my dream.
All New Orleans music is based off dance music, even jazz.
When I’m creating a song, I’m thinking of a hip-hop beat playing on a live drum set – kinda like the Roots would do. I will put New Orleans music on top of that with some other rhythms.
I wanted to become a better entertainer, and I learned from my brother James Andrews. And I’ve been studying some tape of James Brown and different people.
People seem to absorb my sound. It feels like they’re one with me.
At the end of the day, I’m a New Orleans musician. Whatever that means.
I think The Meters are like The Beatles to us in New Orleans, you know.
I may be taking a different approach, being a guy leading a band with a trombone, but if you take that out of it and put in a guitar or keyboard, it would be considered funk-rock music.
It was just music all day… My neighbors were musicians, and my brother and my family and everybody… It was just a musical neighborhood. I think the neighborhood was such a good family type of vibe for me that I didn’t even realize some of the people weren’t my real family till later on in life.
Whatever fame or success we have right now came strictly from us playing. As long as we focus on music and not trying to be stars, I think we’ll be okay.
We don’t want to be hot; we want to last – because eventually hot gets cooled down.
When I play the trumpet, I’m in a different character.
It doesn’t matter where we are. We can be marching down the streets of New Orleans, or we can be onstage in front of 15,000 people. As long as I know that I’m about to put my horn to my mouth and play some notes, that’s what I most look forward to.
Sometimes it’s very hard for other New Orleans musicians to break out. It starts with the musician. They have to be willing to take a risk. Playing in the city, you can get comfortable. You think things are going well, but you’re always in the city.
I just play music. That makes my whole day. I can practice and be happy.
I spent a lot of time with the Neville Brothers and Dr. John and different people. They play different styles of music, and it allowed me to learn different styles.
