Trombone Shorty Quotes

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

I never really listened to any particular trombone players.

- Trombone Shorty

Whenever we can, we try to talk to students. If I can, I'll invite kids from a school to a sound check and take questions from them. I want to show them it's cool to play the trombone. Kids are influenced by what's accessible to them. It's hard for kids to be introduced to music other than what they see on TV and video.

- Trombone Shorty

I'm always trying to emulate guitar. Especially when I'm playing the trombone, that's what I think about. Like, I listen to guitar players every day: Warren Haynes, Lenny Kravitz, Prince, different people. And I'm always trying to find out a way how I can get my trombone to sound like that.

- Trombone Shorty

My parents pushed me toward trombone because they didn't need another trumpet player.

- Trombone Shorty

'Supafunkrock' is a musical gumbo. We throw all those musical influences into the pot and put it out there.

- Trombone Shorty

I could just play my horn in my room for 20 minutes a day, and I will be happy.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

New Orleans is like a big musical gumbo. The sound I have is from being in the city my whole life.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

All New Orleans music is based off dance music, even jazz.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

I just want to spearhead and lead a new style of New Orleans music.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

In New Orleans, we like to interact with the crowd. We don't like people sitting down.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- 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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

I need New Orleans. And New Orleans needs me.

- Trombone Shorty

New Orleans made me who I am.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

At the end of the day, I'm a New Orleans musician. Whatever that means.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

My only time off is when I'm sleeping.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

I grew up right in the heart of Treme, so it was a real music neighborhood, and there was a bunch of bands like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band around.

- Trombone Shorty

If I can just play, it doesn't matter where we are... Japan, Australia, or here in the neighborhood.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

I was nurtured to play music pretty much from birth.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

I just don't like looking at the crowd and seeing them just staring and listening to the music. When I get them involved, whatever type of music I'm playing, they leave there feeling better.

- Trombone Shorty

Everyone who hears our music loves it, but how many people get to hear it?

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

We have to let the younger generations take our music - and approach it the way they want - but just teach them where it all comes from.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

I was given a horn at an early age. I never really got a chance to think about doing anything else until I was about 18, when I realized I could do something else if I wanted to. In my teens, I was rolling in it.

- Trombone Shorty

What's crazy about my life is that the biggest things that have happened just happen.

- Trombone Shorty

Music is changing. I'm just doing what I'm doing, and hopefully in the next 20, 30 years, some kids can take what I'm doing and change it again. If the music doesn't move, then it's dead.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

Australia is one of my favorite places to play - it's a crazy experience.

- Trombone Shorty

Certain jazz musicians just copy what was done 100 years ago. The music won't grow if nobody takes a risk.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

There's a lot of music at my fingertips that I can be influenced by. And just because I play a horn, I don't need to sound, or try to capture, what was happening before me. I can just respect it and learn from it.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

Sometimes on my show, I just play something out of the blue, and the band picks up on it.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

Rock guitar is one of my favourite sounds.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

Whenever I go jamming, people are looking to cut me. The young ones learn my stuff and come play it at me, and I have to learn other stuff. I feel a lot of pressure. But it's cool. It's a good pressure.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

Music brings unity.

- Trombone Shorty

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.

- Trombone Shorty

Everything is a learning experience for me.

- Trombone Shorty

Music should be pushed forward.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

We really practice music and work really hard. Sometimes we'll leave at six in the morning, and we started at three the day before.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty

Music for us is a place of joy. Bringin' joy... that's what we are all about.

- Trombone Shorty

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

- Trombone Shorty