I Think It Is Incumbent

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.

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.

When I Left South Africa In 1960 I Was 20 Years Old. I Wanted To Try To Get An Education, And Music Education Was Not Available For Me In South Africa.

My Biggest Obsession Is To Show Africans And The World Who The People Of Africa Really Are.

I Just Came From South Africa, A Place That Had Been In A Perpetual Uprising Since 1653, So The Uprising Had Become A Way Of Life In Our Culture And We Grew Up With Rallies And Strikes And Marches And Boycotts.