I didn't even respect singers until I heard Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.
I grew up listening to AM radio in the '70s and hearing all of that great soul and rhythm and blues music, which definitely influenced the way I sing. But singing gospel has made me a much more humble person. There are so many people who were geniuses who only a few people knew about when they were alive.
What I like about Elvis is the same thing I like about James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince. These guys, back in the day, there was no smoke and mirrors. It was just raw talent. They would step out onstage and command an audience. Talk about awesome.
You can't have Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as your favorite composers. They simply define what music is!
I believe that a hundred years from now, when people look back at the 20th century, they will look at Miles, Bird, Clifford Brown, Ella and Dizzy, among elders as our Mozarts, our Chopins, our Bachs and Beethovens.
Every once in awhile, the world will push up an Elvis Presley or a Beatles. But that's really outside the realm of show business.
There were three great child singing stars: Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Jackie Washington.
I'm aware of Yusef Lateef and Sun Ra and John Coltrane. My music cup runneth over. I try to encourage people: don't cut anything off, don't limit yourself. Give it a good listen: you might find something in that goofy Sun Ra noise, that dissonance. Before I learned 'official musicality' - which you should avoid at all costs - I listened to some Sun Ra and Yusef Lateef and John Coltrane and that's where 'Journey to the Center of the Mind' came from. When you intentionally and aggressively pursue musical communication with those powerfully impactful musical geniuses, you will pick up something.
I think if you think of our lives as musicians, it's craftsmanship. We're not artists, we're more artisans. You know, I don't think we view ourselves as musical geniuses who can just make some sort of wonderfully beautiful record out of nothing. It's something that we work at. And if we keep working, hopefully we'll keep improving.
Bach and Beethoven erected temples and churches on the heights. I only wanted to build dwellings for men in which they might feel happy and at home.
If you got every single artist in the world in one room, and you put Miles on one side and Prince on the other side, those are the two people that everybody would be trying to get a glimpse of. And Michael Jackson would be the other one.
Elvis wore a halo. Otis Redding did, too. You knew you were playing with a star when you played with them.
Beethoven for listening; Liszt, Chopin, and Beethoven for playing as well as Bach and Prokofiev and so on. If I kept going, this list would spiral. It's as wide as literature; in fact, it is probably wider.
Where are the John Lennons, the Bob Marleys, the Bob Dylans? Where have they gone?
The musicians I really looked up to as a kid were the ones who could play everything.
Questlove redefined what a band can be, and Paul Shaffer and Max Weinberg really put their own spin on it. I bow down to these people. All of them.
