You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.

I'm just human, I have faults like anyone

I was reared in the church from the age of three. I've played piano since I was three. I performed at revivals and for my people around North Carolina for several years. People around town collected money to send me to school.

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.

I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life. I have a chance to live, as I've dreamed.

There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.

I only knew classical music, which to me was the only true music. The only way I could survive at the bar was to mix the classical music with popular songs, and that meant I had to sing. What happened was that I discovered I had a voice plus the talent to mix classical music together with more popular songs, which at the time I detested.