Lionel Hampton Quotations

Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God.

I think I love it more as I get older because I keep getting better on drums, vibes and piano.

Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.

I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s.

The secret is keeping busy, and loving what you do.

Black and white players hadn't appeared together in public before Teddy Wilson and I began working with B.G.

Every day I look forward to getting with my instruments, trying new things.

Playing is my way of thinking, talking, communicating.

I feel honored to have been a part of that dramatic change.

So I always figured I'd still be playing at this age.

Working with Benny was important for me and for black musicians in general.

Louis asked me do I know anything the instrument, and what was it, and I explained it to him. So he said, 'Could you play something on it?' I said, 'Sure,' you know.

That was a big deal at the time, because no blacks were integrated with whites in anything - not in sports, basketball, football, nothing.

It was the first time black and white ever played together and at that time there were no blacks and whites associating together.

Chicago was jazzy, man, jazzy - they had all the great jazz men.

I always figured I'd still be playing at this age.

Music was our wife and we loved her. We stayed with her, clothed her and put diamond rings on her hands.

It's always Jazz. You can put a new dress on her, a new hat, but no matter what kind of clothes she's the same old broad.

I'm motivated. The spirit hits me and I just keep going and don't stop. The more I play, the more I can invent, the more ideas come to me.

All art is communication of the artists' ideas, sounds, thoughts; without that no one will support the artist.

Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I'll give it to them.