"Once there was Louis Armstrong blowing his beautiful top in the muds of New Orleans; before him the mad musicians who had paraded on official days and broke up their Sousa marches into ragtime. Then there was swing, and Roy Eldridge, vigorous and virile, blasting the horn for everything it had in waves of power and logic and subtlety — leaning into it with glittering eyes and a lovely smile and sending it out broadcast to rock the jazz world. Then had come Charlie Parker, a kid in his mother's woodshed in Kansas City, blowing his taped-up alto among the logs, practicing on rainy days, coming out to watch the old swinging Basie and Benny Moten band that had Hot Lips Page and the rest — Charlie Parker leaving home and coming to Harlem, and meeting mad Thelonius Monk and madder Gillespie — Charlie Parker in his early days when he was flipped and walked around in a circle while playing."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Sal, Ch. 10
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/On_the_Road
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
On the Road
74 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by On the Road →
Related Quotes
"We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one noble fun…"
"It seemed like a matter of minutes when we began rolling in the foothills before Oakland and suddenly reached a heigh…"
"Life is life, and kind is kind."
"She was reading the want ads of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. I asked her if she was looking for a job; she only sa…"
"Why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surpr…"
"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks disp…"
"I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is…"
"I want to be like him. He's never hung-up, he goes every direction, he lets it all out, he knows time, he has nothing…"
"Bull had a sentimental streak about the old days in America, especially 1910, when you could get morphine in a drugst…"
"And for just a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy that I always wanted to reach, which was the complete step a…"