Siphiwo

“Music is always for the listener, but the first listener is always the musician”
― Wynton Marsalis

“To be a jazz freedom fighter is to attempt to galvanize and energize world-weary people into forms of organization with accountable leadership that promote critical exchange and broad reflection. The interplay of individuality and unity is not one of uniformity and unanimity imposed from above but rather of conflict among diverse groupings that reach a dynamic consensus subject to questioning and criticism. As with a soloist in a jazz quartet, quintet or band, individuality is promoted in order to sustain and increase the creative tension with the group--a tension that yields higher levels of performance to achieve the aim of the collective project. This kind of critical and democratic sensibility flies in the face of any policing of borders and boundaries of "blackness", "maleness", "femaleness", or "whiteness".”
― Cornel West, Race Matters

“It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.”
― Miles Davis

“Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery.”
― Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography