African Music Quotes:

One of my dreams is to expand and make sure African music and Afro Beats music is really on the map. I would like to be a contribution to that success.

- Ice Prince

source: Source: www.mobo.com

topic: Dream, African Music, Maps

I just wanted to sing, and I didn't want my music to be unique to the US. I wanted Africans to hear it and know that South African music was still alive.

- Letta Mbulu

topic: Unique, African Music, Alive

American audiences don't react in the same way as European ones to African music because, I think, Europeans listen to this music through all the festivals that exist here.

- Rokia Traore

topic: Thinking, African Music, Festivals

What I love about African-African music is how unselfconscious it is in so many ways.

- St. Lucia

topic: African Music, Way, Music Is

You cannot sing African music in proper English

- Fela Kuti

topic: African Music

The curious beauty about African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad story.

- Nelson Mandela

topic: Uplifting, Stories, Curious, Sad Story, African Music

The curious beauty of African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have only a ramshackle house, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope.

- Nelson Mandela

topic: Uplifting, Song, Jobs, African Music

I've got to where I am in life not because of something I brought to the world but through something I found - the wealth of African culture.

- Hugh Masekela

topic: Culture, World, Wealth, Cultural Heritage, African Culture

African music, though very old, is always being rediscovered in the West.

- Miriam Makeba

topic: Music, West, African Music

I did not like that name "world music" in the beginning. I think that African music must get more respect than to be put in a ghetto like that. We have something to give to others. When you look to how African music is built, when you understand this kind of music, you can understand that a lot of all this modern music that you are hearing in the world has similarities to African music. It's like the origin of a lot of kinds of music.

- Baaba Maal

topic: Ghetto, Thinking, Names, Modern Music, African Music

As players of instruments, it is our duty to reach out and give light to those in the dark in whatever way that we can. All my actions are a fulfilment of all the African music genres - I'm only trying to maintain the culture and the tradition. I am a musician.

- Sizzla

source: Source: nehandaradio.com

topic: Dark, Player, Light, Fulfilment, African Music

I will never again play anything that does not have social significance. We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we are master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we've been through,

- Max Roach

topic: Play, Skills, People, African Music

The basic success of the conga came from ...that basic principle of African music and dance: everybody participates. The conga eradicated the distinction between performer and audience, broke down the wall of the proscenium...

- Ned Sublette

source: Ned Sublette (2007). “Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo”, p.409, Chicago Review Press

topic: Wall, Principles, Broke, Basic Principles, Congas

People called rock & roll 'African music.' They called it 'voodoo music.' They said that it would drive the kids insane. They said that it was just a flash in the pan - the same thing that they always used to say about hip-hop.

- Little Richard

topic: Kids, Rocks, People, Voodoo, African Music

As far as being an African artist, my inspiration has been the fact that I'm a part of the generation that will put Nigerian African music on a global scale. It's been a long road for us, but I believe we're finally at that point where we can showcase our music to the world and get international recognition.

- Iceberg Slim

source: Meraki Mag Interview, www.merakiafrica.com. January 27, 2014.

topic: Believe, Inspiration, Artist, Long Road, African Music

I've been informed by both sides, jazz, western music, Asian music, African music, all sides, because I've been interested in the sound of the universe, and that sound is without limit.

- Joseph Jarman

source: Interview with Jason Gross, www.furious.com. October 1999.

topic: Sound, Asian, Limits, Western Music, African Music

Trying to be really dark and alienating just felt exhausting to me, so I started going back to the music that I grew up with, whether it was African music or pop music. It took me away from being overly self-conscious about what I was doing.

- St. Lucia

topic: Dark, Self, Trying, African Music

I like African music, and I'm a huge Ravi Shankar fan.

- Serj Tankian

topic: Fans, African Music

I feel like kids that grew up in New York City or in L.A. were exposed to all these subcultures and subgenres, whereas I was only exposed to the poppiest of pop music so I never had this negative connotation towards pop music. That's not South African music having an effect on me, but just how international music was filtered through South Africa affected me. It gave me a not-negative connotation towards pop music growing up.

- St. Lucia

topic: New York, Growing Up, Kids, Subculture, African Music

I grew up singing Mexican music, and that's based on indigenous Mexican rhythms. Mexican music also has an overlay of West African music, based on huapango drums, and it's kind of like a 6/8 time signature, but it really is a very syncopated 6/8. And that's how I attack vocals.

- Linda Ronstadt

topic: Mexican, Singing, Signatures, Indigenous, African Music

I didn't want to try and borrow kudos from Indonesian culture. I was trying to get a fresh perspective on these instruments. I'm not doing a Paul Simon Gracelands and stealing all this African music and not give anyone any credit.

- Squarepusher

source: Source: thequietus.com

topic: Giving, Perspective, Trying, African Music

My first introduction to African music was by my mother, who bought the 'Pata Pata' album by the great Miriam Makeba when it came out. Now that is an album. What a voice.

- Henry Rollins

topic: Mother, Voice, Albums, African Music

Symmetria by the Uccello Project is a gorgeous, instrumental and largely unclassifiable record. Best thought of as 'cinematic', each of the tracks conjures up a range of emotions and images, taking the listener on a beautiful journey. The layers of basses, guitars and percussion ebb and flow, drawing on jazz, folk, blues and African music, blending all the elements into one lovely album. Recommended.

- Steve Lawson

topic: Beautiful, Journey, Guitar, Percussion, Cinematic