My biggest obsession is to show Africans and the world who the people of Africa really are.

I'm travelling more than ever. I don't have the answer as to why, but the demand seems to have grown as I've got older.

I lived for music since I could think.

I had to run away from home in order to be a musician. Because I came from a family of... my father was a health inspector; my mother was a social worker. And I was pretty smart in school. So they expected me to be some kind of academic - schoolteacher, or doctor, lawyer - and they were very disappointed when I told them I wanted to be a musician.

All my experiences removed geography from my world.

My biggest obsession is to show Africans and the world who the people of Africa really are.

I think that anybody from the 20th century, up to now, has to be aware that if it wasn't for Louis Armstrong, we'd all be wearing powdered wigs. I think that Louis Armstrong loosened the world, helped people to be able to say "Yeah," and to walk with a little dip in their hip. Before Louis Armstrong, the world was definitely square, just like Christopher Columbus thought.