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" 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.' "

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" The blues is played everywhere. There's no place I've been where they don't have blues or aren't interested in blues. "

Taj Mahal

Blues

Been

Place

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

" 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. "

" I see myself as a composer who plays music and likes to play with other people, and not just as a solo artist. "

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

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

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

" I pretty much move around wherever I like. "

Taj Mahal

Wherever

Pretty

" 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. "

Taj Mahal

Time

Child

" Music is like the soul of the planet. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Particularly with the blues, it's not just about bad times. It's about the healing spirit. "

" 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. "

" 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

Home

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

" I'm a composer, man. "

Taj Mahal

Man

Composer

" I wanted to explore the connections between different kinds of music. "

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

" I enjoy music wherever it's coming from. "

" 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. "

" Very old music is, like, 11th century in my mind. That's very old. "

" I base myself in African-derived music. Blues is one of the modern forms of African music. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" My parents grew up during the Harlem renaissance. "

Taj Mahal

Parents

Grew

" In looking out into the world, it didn't look all that nice out there. And who were the nice people? Certainly Mahatma Gandhi was. "

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

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