They had all this talent, and they had no instruments. So they started rap music. They rhymed on their own. They made their own sounds and their own ….

The American drummer is a one-man percussion orchestra..

You can't write the same book twice. Though I've been in historical musical situations, I can't go back and do that again. And though I run into arti….

I will never again play anything that does not have social significance. We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt t….

Music mirrors where we should go, have gone and can go. Music is an abstraction..

I used to take musical instruments home from elementary school. There were some music teachers there - we all learned instruments. A lot of us got st….

I always resented the role of a drummer as nothing more than a subservient figure..

I think that the rhythm sections, drummers in particular, are the unsuing heroes of the music. It's the rhythm section that has changed the styles fr….

Jazz is a democratic musical form. We take our respective instruments & collectively create a thing of beauty..

The people who really got me off were dealing with the musical potential of their instrument..

My point is that we much decolonize our minds and re-name and re-define ourselves . . . In all respects, culturally, politically, socially, we must r….

Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers..