The Jazzmen Quotes

“If lots more of us loved each other, we’d solve lots more problems. And then this world would be a gasser.”
― Larry Tye, The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America

“The Negro,” Duke explained, “is not merely a singing and dancing wizard but a loyal American in spite of his social position. I want to tell America how the Negro feels about it.” And he did, as did his friends Armstrong and Basie.”
― Larry Tye, The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America

“musical stage for more than half of that century, forging melodic models that hadn’t existed and elevating jazz into a pulsating force for spontaneity and freedom.”
― Larry Tye, The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America

“The sound of their evolving jazz dialect formed a cultural fulcrum that no outraged protester or government-issued desegregation order could begin to achieve.”
― Larry Tye, The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America

“Race, for once, fell away as America listened rapt.”
― Larry Tye, The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America