Jazz music is to be played sweet, soft, plenty rhythm.

I do not claim any of the creation of the blues, although I have written many of them even before Mr. Handy had any blues published. I heard them when I was knee-high to a duck.

In 1908 Handy didn't know anything about the blues and he doesn't know anything about jazz and stomps to this day. I myself figured out the peculiar form of mathematics and harmonies that was strange to all the world but me.

The sporting houses needed professors, and we had so many different styles that... it wouldn't make any difference that you just came from . . . whatever your tunes were over there, we played them in New Orleans.

Rejoice at the death and cry at the birth: New Orleans sticks close to the Scriptures.

Jazz music is to be played sweet, soft, plenty rhythm.

My contributions were many: First clown director, with witty sayings and flashily dressed, now called master of ceremonies.