Father Quote by Brian Stokes Mitchell

I was raised on jazz. My father, from the time I was born, used to get up early on Saturdays and Sundays and put…

— Brian Stokes Mitchell

As a kid, I used to go see all the jazz players, Oscar Peterson, Stan Kenton, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespe.

— Jim Coleman

I wouldn't know absolutely everything I've been influenced by, but the first jazz I heard was Duke Ellington.

— Melody Gardot

I fell in love with jazz when I was 12 years old from listening to Duke Ellington and hearing a lot of jazz in…

— Steve Lacy

You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in…

— Cab Calloway

My dad was into jazz, so there was a lot of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington playing in the house, but also a lot…

— Arlo Parks

My dad is a big jazz fan, and that was the reason I first got into jazz.

— Damien Chazelle

If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call…

— Duke Ellington

My dad was really into avant garde jazz: Archie Shepp, John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders.

— Kamasi Washington

A few years later, my Uncle David took me to the Earle Theatre to hear Duke Ellington.

— David Amram

My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden.

— Mose Allison

“I started going to jazz clubs in New York when I was twelve or thirteen, first with my older cousins Mike and Jack, and…

— Donald Fagen