In Rap Music, Even Though The Element

So, Rap Has That Quality, For Youth Anyway; It's A Kind Of Blues Element. It's Physical, Almost Gymnastic. It Speaks To You Organically. Rap Grows Out Of What Young People Really Are Today, Not Only Black Youth, But White - Everybody.

Music Is A Language, And It's Like A Dictionary That Has A Lot Of Words, But If You Limited Yourself To A Couple Of Definitions You Would Be Illiterate. If One Limits Oneself To A Peculiar Definition Like 'new Music,' 'avant-garde,' Or Something Like That, I Think It's Like Cutting Out Half The Dictionary.

In America, For A Brief Time, People Who Followed John Coltrane Were Studied And Considered Important, But It Didn't Last Long. The Result Is That The Kind Of Music I Played In The '60's Is Completely Dismissed In This Country As A Wrong Turn, A Suicidal Effort.

Yes, The Audience Is So Important To Negro Music, Especially The Element Of Call And Response.

And When I Met Cecil Taylor It Was A Complete Transformation Of Musical Identities. All The Tenets That I Had Grown Up With Were Thrown Out The Window.