I base myself in African-derived music. Blues is one of the modern forms of African music.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
What you have to understand is that blues... it's in a line from the oldest forms of African music. If you're playing it like it's an echo of the past, it would be a lot less exciting, but this music lives today.
I've always been interested in any kind of great music, and African music is, I think, the source of it all.
When the slaves left Africa, they left us this music. They left us blues.
The Blues scene now is international. In the '50s it was purely something that you would hear in black clubs, played by black musicians, especially in America. But from the '60s onwards it changed.
The blues are like the fugue in 18th century. It's probably the music that belongs most to our time.
The blues is like a planet. It's an enormous topic. You can't ignore the impact that it has had and continues to have on the whole musical culture. It's a tree that everyone is swinging from. Without it, I don't know where I would be. It's indelible and indispensable.
Without the blues, modern music would be nothing like it is now - not remotely.
I love blues. My grandfather did blues.
I think it was that we were really seasoned musicians. We had serious roots that spanned different cultures, obviously the blues.
As a youngster, my parents made me aware that all that was from the African Diaspora belonged to me. So I came in with Caribbean music, African music, Latin music, gospel music and blues.