Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker claims jazz is purely American and disconnected from Africa despite musical connections. He rejects attempts to link the genre to African origins.
In plain terms
Jazz is American and has no real connection to Africa.
What can you take from it?
Cultural art forms are defined by their place of origin.

Where it applies

  • music history
  • cultural debate

Putting it to work

  • musicology
  • cultural studies

Questions to consider

  • What defines an art form's origin?
  • Can culture be isolated?

Another view

Ignoring African roots overlooks significant historical and musical lineage.

More from Art Blakey

  1. On the eventual death of racism: 'What ever truth drops on it eventually grinds to a powder.'

    Permalink to quote #2
  2. On a live performance: 'If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet. If you feel like clapping your hands, clap your hands. And if you feel like taking o…

    Permalink to quote #3

Related quotes

  1. When I was 14 or 15 I was into the whole Spice Girls and I was a huge fan, but two years ago I heard The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and…

    Katie MeluaKatie Melua quote #3
  2. It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive characteristic.

    James Weldon JohnsonJames Weldon Johnson quote #6
  3. The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient …

    Lewis MumfordLewis Mumford quote #1