Art Blakey Quotes

I believe that blues and jazz are the two uniquely American contributions into music.

I think that American music, for me, it's a synthesis of a lot of different things. But for me growing up in North Carolina, the stuff that I was listening to, the things that I was hearing, it was all about black music, about soul music.

Jazz music, as is also the case with the old down-home spirituals, gospel and jubilee songs, jumps, shouts and moans, is essentially an American vernacular or idiomatic modification of musical conventions imported from Europe, beginning back during the time of the early settlers of the original colonies.

You know, jazz is the mother of all American music. R&B and pop and rap and everything are the branches on the main tree of the life of music, American music, which is jazz.

New Orleans jazz is a complex and embracing art form that began about the same time as the blues and encompassed many of its excellences.

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

The black church in the South is the home of rock & roll.

The Blues? It's the mother of American music. That's what is is - the source.

I was introduced to soul music at a very young age - my mom was a soul singer.

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

It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive character.

Ninety-nine percent of the music that was of any interest to me when I was growing up came out of the black community.

Yes, the audience is so important to Negro music, especially the element of call and response.

I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.

As would-be songwriters, our interest was in black music and black music only. We wanted to write songs for black voices.

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

I always liked jazz. And my people liked the old blues, race records and the doo-wop and all that.

Blues is a big part of rock and roll. The best rock and roll got its birth in the blues. You hear it in Little Richard and Chuck Berry.

The gospel music and doo-wop is what has informed me personally.

Blues is such a dynamic and ever-changing system of music.

Blues and jazz are such a root to music.

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

All jazz comes from blues. Blues first.

James Brown came from that hard, rough life that I came from. He took the blues and added rhythm to it. And he always had the most funkiest band; I liked the way he took his words and mixed it in with the band.

We played, jazz, blues, dixie, and it all came from the church. When I went to church, I would see the sisters and brothers doing the same beat.