Louis Armstrong Music Quotations

If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.

We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.

Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them.

There is two kinds of music the good and bad. I play the good kind.

I never tried to prove nothing, just wanted to give a good show. My life has always been my music, it's always come first, but the music ain't worth nothing if you can't lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience, 'cause what you're there for is to please the people.

All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song

Music is either good or bad, and it's got to be learned. You got to have balance.

Not too slow, not too fast. Kind of like half-fast.

If it hadn't been for Jazz, there wouldn't be no rock and roll.

Never play a thing the same way twice.

Never play anything the same way twice.

When I go to the Gate, I'll play a duet with Gabriel. Yeah, we'll play 'Sleepy Time Down South' and 'Hello, Dolly!.' Then he can blow a couple that he's been playing up there all the time.

My life has always been my music, it's always come first, but the music ain't worth nothing if you can't lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience, 'cause what you're there for is to please the people.

If ya ain't got it in ya, ya can't blow it out.

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.

I don't need words. It's all in the phrasing.

You blows who you is.

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn.

What we play is life.