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.
Trombone Shorty
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.
I could just play my horn in my room for 20 minutes a day, and I will be happy.
We're not really trying to do anything besides represent where we come from, and that's New Orleans.
I'm very proud of 'Backatown,' and usually I don't like to listen to my records.
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.
That always has been one of my dreams, to be able to appeal to a bunch of people.
Everyone who hears our music loves it, but how many people get to hear it?
What's crazy about my life is that the biggest things that have happened just happen.
That's the way New Orleans is. It's driven by the music.
Music should be pushed forward.
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 need New Orleans. And New Orleans needs me.
It's like drinking water. You have to have water every day, and music is like water for me.
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.
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.
One thing I've learned in life is that natural talent only takes you so far, and I've always wanted to grow.
Since I'm born here, my music will always have some New Orleans elements.
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 didn't know what the word 'genre' meant till I was twenty years old.
All New Orleans music is based off dance music, even jazz.
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.
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.
New Orleans is like my blood; it's not going anywhere. And then I just take different things that I've learned over the years and add them to what I'm doing with the natural New Orleans sound.
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.
The only thing we try and do is just be a part of the gumbo that New Orleans is.
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.
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.
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.
I just want to spearhead and lead a new style of New Orleans music.
New Orleans made me who I am.
The music always takes us to different places. We'll just continue to play and see what doors open from there.
If people aren't dancing, we're not doing our job.
We don't want to be hot; we want to last - because eventually hot gets cooled down.
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.
In New Orleans, we like to interact with the crowd. We don't like people sitting down.
I think The Meters are like The Beatles to us in New Orleans, you know.
In New Orleans, we celebrate everything. It's probably the only place you'll see people dancing in a funeral home.
I don't know what America would be without New Orleans and the music.
New Orleans is like a big musical gumbo. The sound I have is from being in the city my whole life.
At the end of the day, I'm a New Orleans musician. Whatever that means.
I just play music. That makes my whole day. I can practice and be happy.
I just wanted to keep growing and touring with my band.
As a musician, as a horn player, sometimes I even get bored listening to all instrumental music.
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.
'Supafunkrock' is a musical gumbo. We throw all those musical influences into the pot and put it out there.
I've lost a bunch of friends - some of them in jail, some of them made bad choices, some of them aren't where they should be.
My parents pushed me toward trombone because they didn't need another trumpet player.
People get caught up in recreating something, and that actually hurts the genre of music because there's nothing new.
My grandfather influenced my brother, and my brother was my biggest influence.
