Only A Few Act -

We Created The Spirituals. We Created So Much Great Music, Jazz Chief Amongst Our Innovations, Teaching Us How To Prize Ourselves And How To Speak To One Another, That Our Kids Don't Know That Achievement, There's No Way In The World That Could Be Good For Us.

Because The Blues Is The Basis Of Most American Music In The 20th Century. It's A 12-bar Form That's Played By Jazz, Bluegrass And Country Musicians. It Has A Rhythmic Vocabulary That's Been Used By Rock N' Roll. It's Related To Spirituals, And Even The American Fiddle Tradition.

Everything Comes Out In Blues Music: Joy, Pain, Struggle. Blues Is Affirmation With Absolute Elegance. It's About A Man And A Woman. So The Pain And The Struggle In The Blues Is That Universal Pain That Comes From Having Your Heart Broken. Most Blues Songs Are Not About Social Statements.

Who Creates A Thing Is Not As Important As What The Thing Is. Who Created Baseball? Who Created Basketball? Who Created The Space Program? Who Created - We Could Go On And On. We Could Argue About Who Created Something. We All Are Participants In It.

When I Auditioned For My High School Band The Band Director Was Excited Because My Father Was Known To Be A Great Musician. When He Heard Me, He Said 'are You Sure You're Ellis's Son?'