Those Who Play For Applause....tha T’s All

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."

There Are Forces All Around You Who Wish To Exploit Division, Rob You Of Your Freedom, And Tell You What To Think. But Young Folks Can Rekindle The Weary Spirit Of A Slumbering Nation.

I Hope It Might Help Players Have Confidence In Our Own Ways, And Not To Be Afraid Of Them, As Bernstein Showed - Things Like Hoe-downs, Fiddle Songs, And The Art Of Improvisation, And The New Orleans Funeral Tradition, And Call-and-response Church Singing, And The Fact That The Blues Run Through Everything. And In Our Relationship To European Music, In That We Don't Have To Imitate It, It's A Part Of Us, Inseparable.

If You Are Serious About American Culture And You Are Serious About Afro-american Culture, You Are In A Lot Of Pain. You Are Not - You Are Not Smiling About It.

The Blues Is Always There. It's Going To Be Hard Out Here, But It's All Right. It's All Right, And That's What The Blues Teaches You. You Got To Roll With The Punches And Find Your Equilibrium.