Wadada Leo Smith

“I think all art is, by nature, intended to motivate society for change, and the only reason change doesn't happen is because within the target population, courage is lacking.”

“I don't set out to win awards. I don't think any musician does, but when you receive an award, it's an affirmation: it means that people appreciate what you do. Every award I have received is a confirmation of something I have done, and that motivates me to push a little harder.”

“The artist is the consciousness of society... but musicians' role is very special.”

“I'm an optimist. I have always been, and I will continue to be. So I believe there's always a possibility of transforming or changing or doing something different.”

“I always felt of myself as a composer, performer, improviser. I've never called myself a jazz man. I make art.”

“I don't set out to win awards. I don't think any musician does, but when you receive an award, it's an affirmation: it means that people appreciate what you do.”

“When I first started, I worked with my father, Alex 'Little Bill' Wallace; he was a guitarist like B.B. King. I was around 13 when I started, and I learned a lot by looking and listening. I learned how to be a bandleader from watching that band work.”

“We have these old fashioned ideas. For instance, here in America, we talk about democracy - but we don't have a democracy. There are elements of a democracy.”

“Everything and anything is valuable.”

“Seeing the bigger picture opens your eyes to what is the truth.”

“Jazz infers a style, but creative music has a wider field and wider specification about it. We know it from people like Scott Joplin and on through Bessie Smith.”

“From now back to the past, we can observe clearly that none of us is free.”

“My solo playing utilizes the deployment of suggestive psychic rhythms. I'll state these throughout a given piece and play thematic improvisations on top of that. I like to suggest that rhythmic movement without always playing it. I like to create openings that I can step into.”

“I have been in dialogue with my family about what can actually be done. We've come up with this philosophy that in a truly multicultural society, the only way to have liberty and justice for everybody is to have multiple parties. And by multiple parties, I mean 50 parties, not one or two.”

“I wanted to identify that the black experience is American experience.”

“When Barack Obama was elected, it immediately brought out all the differences in society.”

“I write all the time. I always have. I can pick up my horn to warm up, and an idea will pop into my head, and I'll write it down and file it away for another time.”

“I've got that Beethoven energy, that Stravinsky energy. And it's all a gift from the Creator.”

“The only thing that makes change possible is the idea of developing some kind of institution, because the institutions will survive individuals.”

“When you live in the South, you're constantly part of the civil rights movement.”