New Orleans is the only place I know of where you ask a little kid what he wants to be and instead of saying “I want to be a policeman,” or “I want to be a fireman,” he says, I want to be a musician.”—Alan Jaffe
I was just like the rest of the kids, wanted to now all about that new music called jazz. I was a second-line kid. That meant I’d follow the big bands down the street and, man, what a thrill when Tio or George Baquet would let me carry their cases while they played!—Albert Nicholas
If I had grown up in any place but New Orleans, I don’t think my career would have taken off. I wouldn’t have heard the music that was around this town. There was so much going on when I was a kid.—Pete Fountain