I Think That The Blues Is In

What I Really Have In My Head, My Imagination, My Understanding Of Music, I Never Really Get That Out.

When I Came To New York, To Brooklyn, I Met Alvin Ailey And Stanley Crouch And August Wilson. They Were Always Putting Things In A Philosophical Context. All The Great Jazz Musicians Did, Too. There Was Always A Sub-context To What They Were Saying About Music Even Though They Would Be Very Down Home And Earthy. So I Started To Develop, In Addition To My Power And Ability To Simply Hear, A Way To Place Myself In A Time.

The Arts Speak Across Epochs. If You Think That People Started To Build A Cathedral In 1315 And The People Worked On That Cathedral, It Wasn't Going To Be Finished Until 1585. So They Were Thinking 200 Years From Now. Maybe By The Time I Die, This Wall Might Be Put Up.

For Me As A Person Who's In The Arts And As Someone Who Understands The Magnitude Of Our Contributions And The Price That Was Paid To Contribute To That, That We Just Have Not Gotten That Together. I Will Do All That I Can To Get In Front Of Our Kids, To Try To Teach Them, But At A Certain Point The People Have To Want It And Come Towards It.

Even If Nobody's Singing, Just When You Talk, You're Singing. I'll Meet Somebody And Say, "oh, I'm Tone-deaf." I Say, "you're Not Tone-deaf, Because If You Were Tone-deaf You Would Speak Like That. But You're 'oh, I'm Tone-deaf.' You Already Sang A Song To Me."