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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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" I pretty much move around wherever I like. "

" My perspective is cultural and world-based. It's always been a global perspective. "

" I wanted to keep pushing the musical ideas I had about jazz, music from Africa and the Caribbean. "

" American music is a powerful ingredient in international music, and as much as it comes from within, it also comes from without. "

" As I got more involved in music, one of the things that made me excited, from the time I was a child, was that clear link between our ancestors and the sounds we hear today. "

" I'm doing exactly what I always wanted to do, and I still like what I can do musically. "

" 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. "

" 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.' "

" As a solo performer, it's total involvement. What I do is to break down the wall between audience and performer. "

" I've got tons more stuff to do. "

" As a kid, I always felt connected to Africa; it was something I was very proud of. "

" I love playing in Germany. I love playing anywhere where people are going to enjoy the music. Germany is especially nice to play. "

" My music is really fun music, with some pan-African and pan-American influences. "

" I would have never gotten to college if it hadn't been for getting up at 4 A.M. and milking them Holsteins. "

" When I was 5 or 6, I was messing around with the piano, and I listened to everything from Chopin to boogie-woogie. "

" More and more people are finally realizing that in the heart of America, there's all this incredible music that wasn't widely heard before because it wasn't in the interest of those who feel they have to control the taste of the wider public. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I haven't worn one for a long time, but I look pretty good in a suit. "

" I'm perceived as someone who goes out and searches for new music, but it was all present in my household. "

" What the future of the planet and music and art and all of it is sharing; it's diversity. "

" I've only been on MTV once as one of their 'Closet Classics,' with some bootleg footage of a 1970 tour I did in Holland. They didn't know what to make of my music, but they finally invented a name for it - world beat music. "

" It's just like heirloom tomatoes; this is heirloom music. We used to have all kinds of diversity in our poultry, in our vegetables, in our fruits, and slowly but surely the monoculture beast comes in. I'm saying that's not a good idea. And if it means that I gotta do it on my own, then I do it on my own. "

" If what you're talking about is seeing someone perform, then I'll have to say that in the rhythm-and-blues side of things, seein' Otis Redding live was it, you know? "

" 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. "

" I didn't want to fall into the trap of complacency. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" It's pretty exciting. An honorary doctorate of the arts. It doesn't get any better. "