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" I think the open mind is the one that's reachable. "
Kamasi Washington
Mind
I Think
Think
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" I've known that about myself, that I've had two sides: one that's pretty tactical, down to earth, aware. There's also a really spacey side. But I realized they're kinda the same thing. "
Kamasi Washington
Down
Two
Earth
" Music is an expression of who you are, and - at least in that sense - I think I epitomize Black Lives Matter. I'm a big black man, and I'm easily misunderstood. Before I started wearing these African clothes, people would assume that I was a threat and that it was O.K. to be violent toward me. "
Kamasi Washington
Me
People
Think
" Fela Kuti blew my mind. His playing is very unorthodox, but I learned how to appreciate that. "
Kamasi Washington
Appreciate
How
Learned
" Isaac Smith sounded like Curtis Fuller, Corey Hogan sounded like Sonny Rollins, Terrace Martin sounded like Jackie McLean. Already, at 13, 14, 15 years old. "
Kamasi Washington
Years
Isaac
Like
" We do have the power to kind of make this world what we want it to be. But we have to just choose to do it ourselves and not wait for someone else. "
Kamasi Washington
Someone
Choose
Power
" So much good music has been looked over because of preconceived notions of genre. "
Kamasi Washington
Over
Because
Much
" There's a deeper level of healing that needs to happen for the world in general. There's a mass of people who are broken. "
Kamasi Washington
Healing
Broken
People
" Even the greatest musicians, they only represent themselves. You represent who you are and what your experiences are and what you have in your heart, and it's the same for me. I represent who I am and what I've been through and what I'm bringing to the music. "
Kamasi Washington
Heart
I Am
Musicians
" At the time of 'The Epic,' as a core band, we were all spending so much time apart making music for other people that by the time we got together - even though we grew up together and there's a special connection we have - it was like a rare privilege to come together. "
Kamasi Washington
Special
Together
Music
" When you bring multiple cultures together, there's a degree of push and pull. "
Kamasi Washington
Bring
Cultures
Push
" There's this notion that music has to be confined to some small, simple place to be popular, something I never believed. "
Kamasi Washington
Simple
Music
Small
" Music doesn't come out of you, it comes through you. You are almost like a messenger. "
Kamasi Washington
Out
Music
Like
" As a person who grew up in Los Angeles - that's a very diverse place - I've always felt like that diversity is a blessing. It's not a problem to be solved: it's a gift to be thankful for. "
Kamasi Washington
Gift
Thankful
Blessing
" Funk could very easily be called jazz, but you call it funk. Does that really matter? People dig that they associate themselves with certain genres, but the genres to me are made up things, like an imaginary world. "
Kamasi Washington
People
World
You
" In the '80s, a lot of kids, if you were kind of bright, you got bussed to schools out of your community. So you wouldn't know the talented musicians who lived around the corner from you. "
Kamasi Washington
You
Musicians
Know
" I wanted to be a positive force in the world. "
Kamasi Washington
Wanted
Positive
Force
" L.A. has always been hated on so much. I remember, the first time I went to New York, I was at jam sessions, and people would hear me and come up to me and be like, 'Oh wow, you're from L.A.? Really?' "
Kamasi Washington
People
Me
New York
" The fact of the matter is that nobody understands what John Coltrane is doing except John Coltrane. And maybe not even him. So we're all experiencing it on this subconscious level. "
Kamasi Washington
Level
Him
Matter
" We started 'Heaven And Earth' in 2016. That was probably the heaviest touring year of my whole life. We probably did almost 200 shows in 2016. We went into the studio, and I honestly didn't know what the album was going to be. So I just kind of started picking songs that I liked. "
Kamasi Washington
Year
Life
Kind
" If you look up, and you see that all of a sudden the world is really coming down on people with brown hair, I would think the people with black hair would look at that and go, 'Well, that could be me, and so, I shouldn't stand for that any more than those people with brown hair stand for it.' "
Kamasi Washington
People
Me
World
" Hip-hop is a collage. It samples from all different styles of music. "
Kamasi Washington
Different
Music
Collage
" People need to realize that even the greatest jazz musicians, when they listen to jazz, they're not like, analyzing it and deconstructing it - they're enjoying it. It's like listening to any other style of music. It's saying something to you, and you kind of just absorb it. "
Kamasi Washington
People
Style
Saying
" My dad was very much a Pan-Africanist and instilled in me and my siblings a want for that knowledge. "
Kamasi Washington
Want
Much
Me
" My mum liked gospel and R&B, Chaka Khan, and Whitney Houston. "
Kamasi Washington
Whitney
Houston
Gospel
" Jazz is a part of me. "
Kamasi Washington
Part
Me
Jazz
" Becoming a musician is a strange thing. It's not all cupcakes and ice cream. You're trying to master an instrument, and you sometimes can't tell if you're getting better. You love it, but you also hate it. "
Kamasi Washington
Love
Ice Cream
Hate
" All John Coltrane's records are amazing. "
Kamasi Washington
John
Coltrane
Records
" We're the only ones who can change our reality. "
Kamasi Washington
Who
Change
Only
" Malcolm X's separatist ideas were situational. If you think about where African-Americans were in the 1940s and 1950s, we needed to step away because that force, which is still present but more subdued, was very in your face, and we needed to take a step back just to get some clarity. "
Kamasi Washington
Clarity
Face
You
" 'Harmony of Difference,' to me, was an opportunity to celebrate one another. And 'Fists of Fury' is an opportunity for us to protect one another. "
Kamasi Washington
Opportunity
Harmony
Celebrate