Top Justin Adams Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Justin Adams Biography

Justin Adams (born 1961, Westminster, London) is an English guitarist and composer who works in blues and African styles.

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Justin Adams Quotes

In some traditional African dances, people wear masks in order to become the embodiments of particular spirits. I have heard that they often cover the mouth-piece with spider webs or something that resonates, so that their voice gets distorted, ceasing to be the voice of a human and becoming representative of a voice that comes from another world.

Masks, Order, People, Resonates, Spider, Voice

Sometimes language is not enough.

Enough, Language, Sometimes

I love communicating with people, and sometimes language is not enough. I think that's what poetry is, where you can mess with language and get through to things that can't be described or communicated through regular language or scientific processes.

Language, People, Poetry, Things, Thinking

One of my interests is to understand what constitutes the vibe of a place and what makes one concert different from another.

Concert, Concerts, Constitutes, Different, Interest

Going to Morocco was massive; that's where I really found music which had the African syncopation and swing mixed with Arabic strains, and together they had this transporting, bittersweet quality.

Mixed, Music, Quality, Swings, Syncopation, Together

On a very technical level, I am a geek who is interested in the intricacy of rhythm playing, so I like comparing and working out its details.

Details, Levels, Playing, Technical, Work Out, Working

In Western classical music the idea of holiness, purity, perfection, and total beauty is expressed through clarity of sound - a bell-like sound. Obviously, that has its own place, and it's a beautiful way of doing it. But I don't think I am the first to point out that in Africa, the more buzzing the sound is, the more it indicates the other world - the spirit world.

Beautiful, Indicates, Other Worlds, Perfection, Thinking, Western

I think it's quite jarring and exciting when you see someone in the thrall of being completely transported by the music they're sharing with you.

Exciting, Quite, See, Think, Thinking, Transported

When I was growing up, my idea of Led Zeppelin was all epic lasers, castles, and ten-minute drum solos - that sort of thing.

Epic, Growing Up, Ideas, Lasers, Thing, Zeppelin

I think the origins of music have probably to do with magic and transcendence as well.

Magic, Music, Thinking, Transcendence

Going to the Sahara Desert and meeting the Touareg band Tinariwen was a life-changing experience. All through that time, I have just carried on learning and meeting musicians, and I keep finding links between different forms.

Desert, Different, Experience, Life Changing, Musician, Musicians

I have much clearer memories of my time in Egypt: songs on the radio, the rhythms that accompanied belly dancers, the sound of the adhan - the Muslim call to prayer. I just soaked it all up.

Memories, Muslim, Prayer, Song, Songs, Sound

I do understand the perspective of die-hard fans who complain that we don't play the same as the record, but at the same time I think fans are getting an amazing deal.

Amazing, Complain, Complaining, Perspective, Record, Thinking

There actually had been a tradition within English music of the '60s of people looking eastwards, maybe in quite a naïve way, but nonetheless, you had musicians like George Harrison or Bryan Jones recording the musicians of Joujouka in North Africa.

People, Musician, Way, Actually, Africa, Music

In a lot of African instruments, you find a rattle, and sound engineers have a hard time making sense of it.

African, Hard Times, Instruments, Rattle, Sense, Sound

I am not scared of making mistakes.

Making, Making Mistakes, Mistake, Mistakes, Scared

I think what a lot of people forget is that a lot of the music in the '60s and the '70s was made in the spirit of daring, spontaneity, and adventure, so the minute all that sinks into this sense of a classic form, it has lost its spirit.

Adventure, Thinking, People, Music, Sense

I think where you play is important.

Important, Play, Think, Thinking