Art Blakey

When it comes to music, don’t lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth.

Music washes away the dust of every day life.

A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music.

[On the word Jazz] There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s only a word. What’s in a name? Nothing! Cats say, Call me Muhammed so-and-so. But what’s the difference? A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music. Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that’s it. No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa.

If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet.

Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that’s it. No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa.

Three months. I was playing the organ for three months. It was a challenge for me in the beginning.

Applause felt like approval and it became a drug that soothed the pain, but only temporarily.

Music should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise. It’s easy to rediscover part of yourself, but through art you can be shown part of yourself you never knew existed. That’s the real mission of art. The artist has to find something within himself that’s universal and which he can put into terms that are communicable to other people. The magic of it is that art can communicate to a person without his realizing it.

In the 1990s, with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, those really big female artists were very glamorous, it was all about the glamour at that time. And so there was a big switch, the desire to be more who you were, not so beholden to this whole standard of beauty. It was a liberation. You see Mary J Blige – she did the same, wearing the combat boots.

The blues tells a story in itself. It can make you happy or give you a feeling to swing.

The human being receives the pleasure from music, not from the argument over what it is.

If you can’t play the Blues you might as well hang it up.

Canada has a passive-aggressive culture, with a lot of sarcasm and righteousness. That went with my weird messianic complex. The ego is a fascinating monster. I was taught from a young age that I had to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.

Everything I’ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

Music is interior decoration.

Your ear is the final judge to what sounds right and what sounds wrong.

A Jazz musician is supposed to find his voice, find his niche and do his thing.

You know at an early age if you have a talent for music.

Jazz came to America three hundred years ago in chains.

My singing evolved with a feeling of intense relaxation, always using my diaphram and breathing specifically through my nose.