The person who constantly studies without doing spiritual practice is like the fool who attempts to live in the blueprint of a house.
The people who really got me off were dealing with the musical potential of their instrument.
I will never again play anything that does not have social significance. We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we are master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we've been through.
Jazz is a democratic musical form. We take our respective instruments & collectively create a thing of beauty.
Music mirrors where we should go, have gone and can go. Music is an abstraction.
I think that the rhythm sections, drummers in particular, are the unsuing heroes of the music. It's the rhythm section that has changed the styles from one period to the other.
My point is that we much decolonize our minds and re-name and re-define ourselves. . . In all respects, culturally, politically, socially, we must re-define ourselves and our lives, in our own terms.
I didn't arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.
I'm going to be in technology for a long time.
I don't need my sexuality celebrated, and I certainly don't need it to be criticized. I didn't necessarily want it to be observed, but here we are.
If we stepped away from so much of the victimhood talk, I think that would make a big change for the better. It does limit art. The conversation wouldn't just be one-sided.