Chicago was jazzy, man, jazzy - they had all the great jazz men.
Chicago was jazzy, man, jazzy - they had all the great jazz men.
Working with Benny was important for me and for black musicians in general.
So I always figured I'd still be playing at this age.
I think I love it more as I get older because I keep getting better on drums, vibes and piano.
Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God.
Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.
Black and white players hadn't appeared together in public before Teddy Wilson and I began working with B.G.
Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.
Every day I look forward to getting with my instruments, trying new things.
Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.
The secret is keeping busy, and loving what you do.
It was the first time black and white ever played together and at that time there were no blacks and whites associating together.
That was a big deal at the time, because no blacks were integrated with whites in anything - not in sports, basketball, football, nothing.
I'm motivated. The spirit hits me and I just keep going and don't stop. The more I play, the more I can invent, the more ideas come to me.
I feel honored to have been a part of that dramatic change.
I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s.
Playing is my way of thinking, talking, communicating.
Jazz went from the classics to ragtime to Dixieland to swing to bebop to cool jazz, . . . But it's always jazz. You can put a new dress on her, a new hat, but no matter what kind of clothes you put on her, she's the same old broad.
All art is communication of the artists' ideas, sounds, thoughts without that no one will support the artist.
© 2020 Inspirational Stories
© 2020 Inspirational Stories