Trombone Shorty Quotes

I never really listened to any particular trombone players.

When you start playing as young as me, and you’ve been in front of audiences your entire life, this is literally what I grew up doing.

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.

I’m very proud of ‘Backatown,’ and usually I don’t like to listen to my records.

I think The Meters are like The Beatles to us in New Orleans, you know.

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 was listening to Ministry and Garth Brooks and Charlie Pride and Wynton Marsalis, and then I would listen to Juvenile or Lil Wayne. It’s just that I’m a big fan of music. I’m a student of music. And I just want to learn and keep enhancing my education about the music.

I just play music. That makes my whole day. I can practice and be happy.

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.

The music always takes us to different places. We’ll just continue to play and see what doors open from there.

In New Orleans, we celebrate everything. It’s probably the only place you’ll see people dancing in a funeral home.

I’ve dreamed a lot of things and a lot of them have come true. The Grammy nomination was the last thing on my list before I had to write a new one. So I’m working on a new one.

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 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 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.

I listen to Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, U2, and it becomes part of me, comes out in my music. Wherever it goes, there will always be the fabric of New Orleans in it.

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.

Hopefully, I can stay around a lot of young musicians and feed off of them.

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.

It’s very important to me that I at least know the history of the music.

When I play the trumpet, I’m in a different character.

The only thing we try and do is just be a part of the gumbo that New Orleans is.

We’re not really trying to do anything besides represent where we come from, and that’s New Orleans.

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.

One thing I’ve learned in life is that natural talent only takes you so far, and I’ve always wanted to grow.

Music in New Orleans has always been the heartbeat that drives the city. It was that even before Katrina, and that’s what we had to rely on after the storm.

I always dreamed of playing a show with Bono and Edge and the guys in Green Day.

I love to play. That’s always been my passion.

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.

Actually, I started off playing by ear and being around a bunch of musicians playing in the streets in the different parades.

There’s pride on Bourbon Street for the musicians that work there. They take it very seriously. I’ve never worked there or played in band there, but it’s a part of the city. They play for the tourists and represent a whole different side of the culture of our city.

I just wanted to keep growing and touring with my band.

People get caught up in recreating something, and that actually hurts the genre of music because there’s nothing new.

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

I didn’t know what the word ‘genre’ meant till I was twenty years old.

Rock guitar is one of my favourite sounds.

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 got a chance to work with Mystikal and Mannie Fresh and Juvenile and all these people as I was growing up, and so that really influenced everything I do.

I have to continue to make the older musicians proud and brush up on my skills.

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.

I’m big fans of all those musicians, B.B. King, Mick Jagger – they’re all on my iPod.

When I was a kid, my friends and I formed a band, Trombone Shorty’s Brass Band. When I was six, I was a bandleader for my brother’s band.

I have to continue to grow and take it to another level so the next generation has something to follow.

As a musician, as a horn player, sometimes I even get bored listening to all instrumental music.

My only time off is when I’m sleeping.

Everything is a learning experience for me.

Music brings unity.

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.

Everywhere I go around the world, we have fans of New Orleans. Sometimes we go places, and people don’t really know who we are, but they know New Orleans, and once we say we are from New Orleans, we have a lot of supporters.

We had a bunch of instruments around the house. Like, I played different instruments, trumpet, bass, drums, piano, all that, but whatever I could get my hands on.

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.

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

We don’t want to be hot; we want to last – because eventually hot gets cooled down.

I’m very proud of my band and my musicians.

That always has been one of my dreams, to be able to appeal to a bunch of people.

Being jazz-trained, things happen spontaneously. Even though it’s funk rock, we still have the instincts of a jazz musician.

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

New Orleans made me who I am.

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

If people aren’t dancing, we’re not doing our job.

People seem to absorb my sound. It feels like they’re one with me.

We come from New Orleans, so everything is emotional – for, once the music takes over, and we start blowing, we go into a different zone that takes over our whole body.

To be able to do what you truly love for a living is a gift.

Music should be pushed forward.

Certain jazz musicians just copy what was done 100 years ago. The music won‘t grow if nobody takes a risk.

You always want to learn, you know.

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

It’s like drinking water. You have to have water every day, and music is like water for me.

My grandfather influenced my brother, and my brother was my biggest influence.

From the food to the Mardi Gras Indians to the brass bands and the second liners parading through the street, Jazz Fest presents New Orleans in one place.