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" I enjoy music wherever it's coming from. "
Taj Mahal
Coming
Music
Wherever
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" I was always looking for evidence of these common musical roots, but I was too young to know that what I was doing was called ethnomusicology. "
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" It's very interesting, the dynamics of popularity. When you do something all the time, you don't worry about whether it's trendy or not. "
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" Very old music is, like, 11th century in my mind. That's very old. "
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" When I was 5 or 6, I was messing around with the piano, and I listened to everything from Chopin to boogie-woogie. "
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" As a kid, I always felt connected to Africa; it was something I was very proud of. "
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Proud
Always
Connected
" Music is like the soul of the planet. "
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" My parents grew up during the Harlem renaissance. "
Taj Mahal
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Grew
" I'm old enough to chew my peas and corn without choking. "
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" I was always taught that Latin, Caribbean people were cousins to me, as well as blues was a cousin to me, as well as Africans were direct relatives to me. It was all a part of my language. "
Taj Mahal
Language
People
Me
" I don't care if it's somebody else's song. Most of the time, you'll find that I'll put my own stamp on it. But I started writing more because, you know, it's easy to regurgitate what somebody else is doing, but it's exciting to be able to come up with your own writing. "
Taj Mahal
Know
Care
You
" I don't need the credits for playing the blues and paying the dues. I've already done it. There are some other things to do here - movies and scores and voice-overs. "
Taj Mahal
Blues
Playing
Done
" All the music that I play today, I actually heard either at home or in my neighborhood when I was growing up in the '40s and '50s. "
Taj Mahal
Growing Up
Up
Home
" My mother was American, and my father was from the Caribbean, and there was a big open door into the world of humanity and music. "
Taj Mahal
Door
Mother
World
" My grandmother had many children. She lost most. So when we came along, we were really special. I was the first grandchild that could see her spirit moving to a new generation. "
Taj Mahal
Moving
Children
She
" I'm always cracking up when I hear what people think I should be doing. "
Taj Mahal
Doing
Up
Think
" I would have never gotten to college if it hadn't been for getting up at 4 A.M. and milking them Holsteins. "
Taj Mahal
College
Would
Getting
" I came up not understanding that a lot of people didn't start to hear music until they went to college or were turned on by an older brother or sister. "
Taj Mahal
College
Brother
Music
" Particularly with the blues, it's not just about bad times. It's about the healing spirit. "
Taj Mahal
Blues
Bad Times
Spirit
" American music is a powerful ingredient in international music, and as much as it comes from within, it also comes from without. "
Taj Mahal
American
Music
Without
" The song of the blues, the song of the music, was something a lot of people missed out on. They thought they had to swagger a certain way or bark at the mic, and you don't have to do that. "
Taj Mahal
Music
People
Song
" No matter what went down, music was always going to be a part of my life. What ultimately happened is that, over a period of time, I just kind of looked around and when like, 'Wow! I'm actually making a living doing this.' "
Taj Mahal
Time
My Life
Down
" I'm a composer, man. "
Taj Mahal
Man
Composer
" Naw, it - it never stops, man... You gotta be doing what you're supposed to be doing - whenever, however it's coming down, you know. If you're getting your butt kicked - you still gotta do what you gotta be doing. "
Taj Mahal
Man
Doing
You
" What you have to understand is that blues... it's in a line from the oldest forms of African music. If you're playing it like it's an echo of the past, it would be a lot less exciting, but this music lives today. "
Taj Mahal
Blues
You
Past
" I wanted to explore the connections between different kinds of music. "
Taj Mahal
Explore
Music
Connections
" My perspective is cultural and world-based. It's always been a global perspective. "
Taj Mahal
Always
Perspective
Global
" I'm perceived as someone who goes out and searches for new music, but it was all present in my household. "
Taj Mahal
New
Music
Someone
" I pretty much move around wherever I like. "
Taj Mahal
Like
Wherever
Pretty
" My grandparents on my father's side came to this country from the Caribbean with a strong connection to Africa and no shame about it. "
Taj Mahal
Connection
Father
Grandparents
" As a youngster, my parents made me aware that all that was from the African Diaspora belonged to me. So I came in with Caribbean music, African music, Latin music, gospel music and blues. "
Taj Mahal
Me
Parents
Caribbean