Art Blakey Quotes

Jazz came to America three hundred years ago in chains.

The music [of America] must be founded upon what are called the negro melodies …. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are American.

Most people don't know that Congo Square was originally a Muscogee ceremonial ground... in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz.

My own thinking has evolved. You find Africanisms in American speech. You find an African influence on United States culture. There are all kinds of Africanisms in America, as you would expect, if you really thought about it... That whole thing is much broader; the influence is much broader than I first understood.

You have Vampire Weekend who have more African references musically than most African-American artists.

American music culture is black culture.

Jazz comes from our way of life, and because it's our national art form, it helps us to understand who we are.

If there was no black man there would be no Rock'n'Roll. The beat, the rhythms of Africa are what created Rock'n'Roll and Jazz.

There is a distinctive African American culture that has roots in Africa and evolved on American soil.

We're not here as a black band playing white string band music. You know, we play stuff in the Appalachians, we play stuff in the white community, but we really highlight the black community's music.

As a child, I experienced black culture as many people did in America: on the TV, radio, and stages.

Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it's our music. It's the national music of America.

This American Jewish music is a new experience for us at least consciously.

Miles Davis was doing something inherently African, something that has to do with all forms of American music, not just jazz.

As far as I'm concerned, blues and jazz are the great American contributions to music.

I think the blues is the best literature that we as blacks have created since we've been here. I call it our 'sacred book.' What I've attempted to do is to mine that field, to mine those cultural ideas and attitudes and give them to my characters.

I viewed black musicals before 'Jelly' as a form of cultural strip mining. The exterior remained, but all the culture that signified where the people had come from and their connection to the earth was absent.

Jazz was the pop music of its day, and all American popular music has stemmed from it one way or another.

I was always drawn to gospel music and the roots of African-American music. It's the foundation of rock and roll.

Slaves and the descendants of slaves created world pop culture. Let's keep it real and be very respectful about that.

You can't just say in one sentence what is blackness or what is black culture or what makes you who you are.

Jazz, to me, is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul - the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile.

I wanted to explore black culture, and I wanted that culture to be a revelation.

I'm more American than anything else. I grew up in China, but I was fulfilled at a young age by American music. It was my biggest inspiration.

I am not afraid of European influences. The point is to use them, as Ellington did, as part of my life as an American Negro.