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.

I am not an African. I am an American.

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

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.