Lady Gaga Quotes

All black art is always judged to illuminate our experience and prove that our stories and our history and our lives matter. And that goes back to Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston - take your pick.

American music culture is black culture.

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.

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.

My biggest inspiration is black America and what they've done in the arts. I have always felt like an outsider in America, and what black Americans have done to add their chapter to this book called the American dream, and to be so unapologetic and true, and have added so much to art and culture in the world.

To me, Harlem is one of the most important places on the earth, particularly when it comes to talking about African Americans.

I always felt of myself as a composer, performer, improviser. I've never called myself a jazz man. I make art.

You've got to appreciate the things that come from the art of the Negro and from the heart of the man farthest down.

I don't think theater is dying, and musicals are a great American art form. We've got apple pie, jazz and musical theater.

The most important thing about Jazz at Lincoln Center is the fact that it's the first time that perhaps the most important art form in American culture has a place to really exhibit itself and dedicated to its own particular conditions of performance.

I'd be happy if people said that I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.

What happens when an art form becomes ambiguous, I think, is that the standards are lowered. You can say anything is jazz. So I think it's important to reflect on what made jazz so special.

I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

I think I was drawn to black culture by the same things that have been drawing the entire world to it since the days of Richard Wright, Josephine Baker and Louis Armstrong. This culture is original, potent and seductive.

I grew up watching American films, listening to American music, and it's a big contribution to the rest of the world. I mean, American jazz, for me, is the best thing culturally that America has produced.

In the imagination, Harlem will always be the spiritual capital of black excellence in America.

Black History Month is a poignant time for the entire country, but particularly the African American community.

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

I started composing when I was around 13, and back then, people used to say that I needed to be a composer or a performer, but I can't be good at both of them. I could never understand why anyone would say that. Jellyroll did both, Bessie Smith did both, and so did I.

Harlem's streets lead backward, into history, straight to a work such as 'This Was Harlem.'

Jazz is not background music.

The only art form that Americans have created that's recognized around the world is jazz music born in a community that had the peculiar experience of being unfree in a free land.

The reason why the music [jazz] is important is because it's an art form-an ancient art form-that takes in the mythology of our people.

From politics and business to music and food to culture, African-Americans have helped to shape our state's colourful past and its future.