Some Stances Are Just Conducive

The Blues. It Runs Through All American Music. Somebody Bending The Note. The Other Is The Two-beat Groove. It's In New Orleans Music, It's In Jazz, It's In Country Music, It's In Gospel.

There Really Have Only Ever Been A Few People In Each Generation Who Step Out, Are Willing To Put Themselves On The Line, And Risk Everything For Their Beliefs.

What Takes Its Place Is Very Dry Education. And The Tools That Actually Can Teach You - Singing And Playing, Learning How To Participate With Other People, Spiritual Richness - Are Replaced With A Big Emphasis On How To Memorize Things. That's Such An Incomplete Education. Survival Of The Fittest Used To Mean Being Bigger And Stronger.

The Blues Is Always There. It's Going To Be Hard Out Here, But It's All Right. It's All Right, And That's What The Blues Teaches You. You Got To Roll With The Punches And Find Your Equilibrium.

I Love Gustavo Dudamel And I Love What He Does For Classical Music, And I Love What He Comes Out Of, El Sistema And The Old Man Abreu. When We Were In Venezuela, I Had The Chance To Go To His Building. He Had, Like, Five Or Six Orchestras Playing Of Kids From The Hood Playing, Like, Mahler's Third Symphony And Shostakovich Fifth And Beethoven. Man, It's Unbelievable. I Mean, They Could Play.