Kamasi Washington Quotes

When I perform, I like to immerse myself in the music, and I just try to get off on the diversity of music.

I listen to and I play all kinds of music, and I'm interested in jazz and in bluegrass - I like it all - but Cuban music speaks to me in a certain way.

Listening is the key to everything good in music.

I hate labels; the problem is that if you say you're one thing, it's hard for people to imagine you as something else. Music is way more complicated than that.

I think the people who are saying jazz has to sound a particular way, or, 'What you're doing isn't jazz,' are just scared because they can't do it. A lot of them just aren't talented enough to do anything new, honestly.

There were two things I discovered when I toured with Snoop. One was that the band was all jazz musicians. The second was to instil in me a respect for other styles of music. From then on, whenever I played a new kind of music, I came with the same kind of open mind. What are they trying to do? What are they hearing? How do they see music?

For me, there are no borders in music in general.

Kind of the sad thing is that - it's still true - a lot of jazz people just listen to jazz, and a lot of hip-hop people just listen to hip-hop, and there's not a lot of crossover, unfortunately.

Whether you work with your family or someone from outside, you can't take the audience for granted.

We can play all we want, but if nobody's there, if nobody feels anything with what we're playing, then what's the purpose?

You'd better have something good to say if you've got a roomful of people who've paid to see you.

Music is so intimate and so personal that when you can find somebody that feels the same way about it that you do, it's magic. It can be. It really can be.

For me, genres are a way for people to easily categorize music. But it doesn't have to define you. It doesn't have to limit you.

I really enjoy connecting with the audience.

I love all genres of music. I think it helps you become a better performer if you know the different types of music.

I think all the music I do, which ties together, as far as I'm concerned, is fun and entertaining.

Musicians understand each other through means other that speaking.

Musically, I try not to box things in. I try to just play around this spectrum of influences: soul, jazz, and hip-hop.

I'm suspicious of the idea of categories in music and this idea of things being in boxes. To me, that seems unnatural. I write the music that somebody with my biography would write, and the thing that's always driven me is an enthusiasm for the material. I sort of follow the notes to where they want to go.

I love entertaining and I love storytelling.

Music is a language that should have no barriers.

I don't like to focus on just hip-hop because with hip-hop, I can only do so much; with a vocalist, I can only do so much, but the limitations are varying.

If you're sitting there going, 'Well, these particular genres are the only genres I like,' that's like saying, 'I only like books with this particular kind of cover.' Because that's all genre is. It's a discussion of texture.

If you're playing someone who's not like you at all, it's good to find music that is their rhythm and their energy.

Rock music is a funny thing: You can actually take it too far sometimes, and then it's not rock music anymore - it's something else, but it's not rock.