When the Negro musician or dancer swings the blues, he is fulfilling the same fundamental existential requirement that determines the mission of the poet, the priest and the medicine man.

The blues is not the creation of a crushed-spirited people. It is the product of a forward-looking, upward-striving people.

I am not an African. I am an American.

When the Negro musician or dancer swings the blues, he is fulfilling the same fundamental existential requirement that determines the mission of the poet, the priest and the medicine man.