I Have Friends Who Will Critique Me

When I Say "our," I Definitely Mean All Of America. It's Not Less Pertinent For You Because It Comes From A Black Person, Just Like A Great Achievement By An Anglo American Is Less Important.

When I Auditioned For My High School Band The Band Director Was Excited Because My Father Was Known To Be A Great Musician. When He Heard Me, He Said 'are You Sure You're Ellis's Son?'

I Didn't Have A Philosophical Understanding Of Music Until I Came To New York. I Didn't Understand How It Applied To My Kind And My Generation. I Thought It Was Just Old People Talking.

I Hope It Might Help Players Have Confidence In Our Own Ways, And Not To Be Afraid Of Them, As Bernstein Showed - Things Like Hoe-downs, Fiddle Songs, And The Art Of Improvisation, And The New Orleans Funeral Tradition, And Call-and-response Church Singing, And The Fact That The Blues Run Through Everything. And In Our Relationship To European Music, In That We Don't Have To Imitate It, It's A Part Of Us, Inseparable.

Let The Critics Criticize And Let The Doers Do.