I’m not much of a hand at this sort of thing. I’d rather play than talk or write about jazz but as I’ve been asked how I feel about jazz, I may as well say exactly what I feel. There’s been a lot of talk about technique as far as I’m concerned. There’s been a lot of people said that I’ve no technique and that I rely on sincerity. But I’ve found that my technique is adequate for what I want to do; sometimes my ideas get ahead of me, but usually I can say on my trumpet what I want to say.

Sincerity is something that should be taken for granted. If you don’t feel it then you shouldn’t be playing jazz. I’d like to say something else that I feel should be said and that is: you don’t have to be noisy to be powerful. I wish more musicians would realise that. People sometimes say I play too quiet but that’s the way the old New Orleans men played. No one instrument should play more than the other. It’s taken me years to find out just how I wanted to play trumpet. When I’ve played I’ve always filled in just a little bit here and a little bit there where I felt it needed it. I can play a straight lead if I want to, but this is how I feel New Orleans trumpet should be played.

The important thing is not to pattern yourself on a musician or a band. Pattern yourself on a sound. I think the George Lewis band or the Kid Ory band or the Bootblacks are the best of New Orleans jazz but I remember Sam Morgan’s Band. That was a really great band – a big, warm sound and it’s marvellous how they managed such a swinging front line with such an unwieldy instrumentation. They had two sopranos, two trumpets, two saxes and rhythm.

When I went to New Orleans, I was lucky to hear the Lewis band in its finest flower. People who had been in New Orleans for a long, long time said the band was playing greater than ever.

My visit to New Orleans strengthened my beliefs. I didn’t know what to think before I went. There were so many anti-Colyer fans that I began to believe that it might be me that was wrong, but I found that I was right in what I thought about jazz.

In those days I was intense about jazz. I won’t say I was fanatical because fanaticism doesn’t have to have any thought behind it. I was intense. I think I’ve been honest all along and I’ve never tried to kid anyone. I don’t mind the way jazz is going now. If it’s getting more popular – fine. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be popular, so long as it doesn’t get out of hand. I’ve played all kinds of tunes – pop tunes, folk music and all that. That’s the kind of music the New Orleans musicians used to play. The trouble is when the means become more important than the end. There’s no use chasing the Hit Parade.

>I think we play good jazz over here. All the Americans that come over have proved that. George was dumbfounded when he came over. He didn’t know what to expect and he was knocked out by the reception he got. I think if a musician has absorbed enough of the idiom he can play a pop tune and still make it jazz.

Personally I don’t want to argue any more about New Orleans jazz. I’ve got my own ideas and I want to play them. I like to listen to other people. I think Billie Holiday is great. I could listen to her all night. Some of the things I’ve heard come direct from New Orleans. McKinneys Cotton Pickers, the greatest big band I’ve ever heard took a lot from New Orleans jazz and Woody Herman took a lot from the Cotton Pickers. All that shake trumpet that the Basie band featured, and all the other bands started copying, came from New Orleans. All these shakes and trills and bent notes came from New Orleans.