Zitat des Tages von Taj Mahal:
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.
It's pretty exciting. An honorary doctorate of the arts. It doesn't get any better.
Particularly with the blues, it's not just about bad times. It's about the healing spirit.
The one thing I've always demanded of the records I've made is that they be danceable.
I'm always cracking up when I hear what people think I should be doing.
As a kid, I always felt connected to Africa; it was something I was very proud of.
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.
My music is really fun music, with some pan-African and pan-American influences.
I love playing in Germany. I love playing anywhere where people are going to enjoy the music. Germany is especially nice to play.
I see myself as a composer who plays music and likes to play with other people, and not just as a solo artist.
The blues is played everywhere. There's no place I've been where they don't have blues or aren't interested in blues.
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.
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.
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.'
What the future of the planet and music and art and all of it is sharing; it's diversity.
When I was a kid, there was so much talent outside of recorded music.
Very old music is, like, 11th century in my mind. That's very old.
I wanted to keep pushing the musical ideas I had about jazz, music from Africa and the Caribbean.
My parents grew up during the Harlem renaissance.
My perspective is cultural and world-based. It's always been a global perspective.
My mother was American, and my father was from the Caribbean, and there was a big open door into the world of humanity and music.
I just worked my own personal thoughts into my music, and just kept at it until I found a way in.
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.
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 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.
I'm doing exactly what I should be doing, every day on the road.