Official Website of Jazz Trumpeter

2008

Monday-Friday, 6/2-6
Kansas City Kansas Community College Jazz Camp. Contact and additional information: http://www.kcjazzorchestra.com/jazzcamp/index.html

Friday-Saturday, 6/20-21
University of Nebraska/Omaha Jazz Workshop. Contact and additional information: http://music.unomaha.edu/jazzsummercamp.html

Sunday-Friday, 7/13-18
University of Missouri/St. Louis Jazz Combo Camp. Contact and additional information: http://www.jimwidnerbigband.com/jazzcamps.htm

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY
(Some new, some old favorites.)

"If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead." — Johnny Carson

"He was more comfortable in front of a big audience than with four or five people at a party." — Ed McMahon about Johnny Carson

"I figure that between now and the day I die I can always try to improve." — Doc Severinsen (1997, at age 70)

"Embouchure is only 10 percent of trumpet playing. But that 10 percent has to be 100 percent right." — Unknown

"He sounds to me like he's supposed to be the savior of jazz. Sometimes people speak as though someone asked them a question. Well, nobody asked him a question." — Miles Davis on Wynton Marsalis

"Now that we've been put through the socioeconomic racial forensics of a jazz-illiterate historian and self-imposed jazz expert prone to sophomoric generalizations and ultraconservative politically correct utterances, can we have some films about jazz by people who actually understand the music itself?" — Keith Jarrett on Ken Burns' "Jazz"

"In the '60s and '70s there would have been protests everywhere. But we've become complacent and desensitized. We're much more interested in a bunch of models on an island who have to canoe to win a prize." — Billy Bob Thornton on the Iraq war

"You break it, you own it." — former Secretary of State Colon Powell in 2003 on the possible consequences of invading Iraq

"I long for simpler times with smarter people." - Richard Jorgensen

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix." — former Vice President Dan Quayle

"We are becoming a nation of boobs, the laughing stock of the civilized world. Our popular culture is taking over the world, yes, but in the manner that toxic waste takes over a mountain stream." — Syndicated columnist Donald Kaul

"Charlie Parker would squeak a lot, and that's why they called him Bird, because his reed would chirp." — Kenny G

"No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up." — Lily Tomlin

"I go to movies to enter another world. If I wanted reality I'd watch the evening news." — Unknown

"So is diarrhea, but I wouldn't classify it as entertainment." — Eileen Heckart's character in the film "Butterflies Are Free" (1972) when told that "degeneracy" in the theater is justifiable because it's part of real life.

"I don't get angry, okay? I mean, I have a tendency to internalize. I can't express anger. That's one of the problems I have. I grow a tumor instead." — Woody Allen in the film "Manhattan" (1979)

"Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness - and it's all over much too quickly." — Woody Allen in the film "Annie Hall" (1977)

"Life is too important to take seriously." — St. Louis television producer- director, Phill Rock

"If you don't know the melody, just play it in unison." — Lawrence Welk

"If you can't make both ends meet, make one vegetable." — Gary Sivils

"When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car." — Unknown

"In school they told me 'practice makes perfect.' Then they told me 'nobody's perfect.' So I stopped practicing." — Steven Wright

"I only drink to make other people seem interesting." — George Jean Nathan

"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza." — Dave Barry

"I'd rather not belong to any club that would have me for a member." — Groucho Marx

"I don't hate people, but I feel a lot better when they're not around." - Mickey Rourke in the film "Barfly" (1987)

"If necessity is the mother of invention, what will drive our ingenuity when our needs have been fulfilled?" — Stephen Hawking

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology." — Thomas Jefferson

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." — Carl Sagan

"Jazz in America? A dead issue. There is very little interest in jazz here. Especially the kind of jazz I deal with, which is based firmly in the classic American popular song form. There are many young players who play this music beautifully, but the audience is very small, and growing older." — Dave Frishberg

"I spent a lot of time playing in miserable places that were not a lot of fun. Somebody once said it is character building and I was like, 'My character is just fine.'" — Diana Krall

"I've already paid these dues!" — mm in June 2007, shouted to the rhythm section over the cacophonous din at a gig where the crowd noise was louder than the band.

"A man has got to know his limitations." — "Dirty Harry" Callahan/Clint Eastwood in the film "Magnum Force"(1973)

"Never look for water in a dry well." — Dr. Victor Bikalis

"By the time you figure out how to play the C scale, it's time to play Taps." — John McKee (1945-1989)