If you look at someone standing in front of a big band, they probably wrote a check for the privilege.
There are times when you are a trombone player and there are other times when you are the trombonist.
They say it ain’t like it used to be, well . . . when was it like it used to be? It never was like it used to be!
Just being in New York and playing music is successful.
That was the night Woody started calling me Too Tall John. Someone said if he makes up a nickname for you . . . it means you’re on the band!
Someone asked David Baker in an improv class if he thought any of us would make it in New York. David answered . . . make it in New York? Just find a way to stay in New York.
We started playing brass instruments very young. I think it was mostly from our curiosity of the shiny metal objects in the forbidden room.
Musically, playing with Frank Sinatra might still be the highlight of my life.
It would not surprise me if in the next hundred years a future John Coltrane is a trombone player.
Woody Shaw was an intense person and that’s why his music had that intensity. He believed in what he believed in and wasn’t scared to say it. He was 100% focused!
