The Bandstand Is A Sacred Place.

I Had To Figure Out How To Survive In New York, And Most Of My Time Was Occupied In Getting An Apartment And Getting Money. A Lot Of Older Jazz Guys Looked Out For Me And Found Me Gigs And Places To Stay.

When I Did The Abyssinian Mass, I Went Through The Whole History Of The Church Music And The Gospel Music, Even With The Anglo American Hymns, The Afro American Hymns, The Spirituals And How It Developed, Up To Thomas Dorsey And The Dixie Hummingbirds, Going Through The History Of The Music, Jazz Musicians.

What I Really Have In My Head, My Imagination, My Understanding Of Music, I Never Really Get That Out.

When It Comes To Songs And Music, Yeah, People Love To Sing And Dance And Play Music And Tunes, And That Stream Of Consciousness That Exists In Music, Nobody Knows Where That Comes From.

It's Like We're Suffering From An Identity Crisis, And That Identity Is In Our Arts And The Fact That We Don't Find It Chief Amongst Our Agendas To Teach Our Kids Who We Are As A Nation And The Battles We've Had On This Ground And How They've Been Successfully Resolved. We Can't Enjoy The Fruits Of The Labor Of Our Ancestors.