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" 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
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" 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. "
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" When you're making music, you're creeping up on your heart and pouring it out into something. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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People
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" There were two things I discovered when I toured with Snoop. One was that the band was all jazz musicians. The second was to instil in me a respect for other styles of music. From then on, whenever I played a new kind of music, I came with the same kind of open mind. What are they trying to do? What are they hearing? How do they see music? "
Kamasi Washington
Music
See
Respect
" I feel like I'm musically free to do what I want. "
Kamasi Washington
Like
Free
Want
" You have to dig deep to make great music, and it gets harder and harder. It's a difficult, painful process to reach deep in there and pull out the real gems. And you have to have that little bit of anxiety of, 'Can I really do this? Am I good enough?' You need that in the recipe to really get down in there. "
Kamasi Washington
Great
Music
You
" My hope is that witnessing the beautiful harmony created by merging different musical melodies will help people realize the beauty in our own differences. "
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Beautiful
Beauty
Help
" I've had experiences where people say, 'I hated jazz before I heard you guys!' I'm like, 'You didn't hate jazz before you heard us; you hated the idea of jazz.' "
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Hate
Say
People Say
" 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
" 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 learned at a young age, with our dad, that even if you weren't doing something, you had to look like you were, or some hard labor was coming your way. That's the reason I started practicing music - when I was practicing, Pops left me alone. "
Kamasi Washington
You
Age
Alone
" 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
" I think the open mind is the one that's reachable. "
Kamasi Washington
Mind
I Think
Think
" Music is this medium to express who I am and what I've been through and my thoughts and what my feelings on the world are. We're all on the planet together; I'm just using this medium to express how I see it. "
Kamasi Washington
Music
I Am
World
" I don't want to live my life to necessarily overcome struggle, but when I am going to hit struggle throughout my life, I face it head on. "
Kamasi Washington
Live
Life
Struggle
" 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
" 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
" When I was working on 'To Pimp A Butterfly' and 'DAMN.,' I'm really making music for Kendrick. It's a different mindset than when I'm making music for me. I'm trying to get into his head and figure out what he wants because it's his vision. That's what I expect from people when they're playing on my records. "
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Me
Music
People
" This precious thing of empathy and love and understanding is something we have to hold and appreciate and protect. "
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Empathy
Appreciate
Love
" I can't really worry about nuclear war any more than I can worry about the aliens coming. "
Kamasi Washington
Worry
More
I Can
" As musicians, we have one of the greatest tools of bringing people together in music. "
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People
Together
Music
" West Coast hip hop was the sound of my neighbourhood. It was something I could relate to because it had a sound that felt like my surroundings - almost more so than what they were saying. That music was made to be bumped in a Cadillac! "
Kamasi Washington
Sound
Surroundings
Saying
" I wanted to be a positive force in the world. "
Kamasi Washington
Wanted
Positive
Force
" I think the reason why I see life as this never-ending struggle is because I imagine it having endless potential. "
Kamasi Washington
See
Life
Think
" 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
" There's a whole stereotype of the jazz musician that's into poetry and reading and metaphysics and all that stuff. Really, it's a sign of someone who's searching, whose mind is open, looking for answers. Whatever ideas you may come up with, the beautiful thing is the search. "
Kamasi Washington
Ideas
Beautiful
Reading
" All John Coltrane's records are amazing. "
Kamasi Washington
John
Coltrane
Records
" By the time I was about 15, I was out playing gigs and knew I was going to be a musician. "
Kamasi Washington
Going
Time
Playing
" Jazz is a part of me. "
Kamasi Washington
Part
Me
Jazz