The Real Power Of Jazz Is That

Everything Comes Out In Blues Music: Joy , Pain , Struggle . Blues Is Affirmation With Absolute Elegance.

Jazz Music Is America's Past And Its Potential, Summed Up And Sanctified And Accessible To Anybody Who Learns To Listen To, Feel, And Understand It. The Music Can Connect Us To Our Earlier Selves And To Our Better Selves-to-come. It Can Remind Us Of Where We Fit On The Time Line Of Human Achievement, An Ultimate Value Of Art.

Don't Settle For Style. Succeed In Substance.

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 Musicians, Duke Ellington, His Thing Was Not About Separating Himself From The Rest Of America. Louis Armstrong - Go To The Forefathers Of Our Music - Jelly Roll Morton - They're Not Preaching A Separatist Agenda. They're Not Taking Their Music And Saying, "this Is For Me."