African american Quote by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Miles Davis was doing something inherently African, something that has to do with all forms of American music, not just jazz.

— Cassandra Wilson

Grover Washington was my main influence, and when I went to college, I started listening to more of the jazz masters like Sonny Rollins,…

— Kenny G

For me, jazz will always be the soundtrack of the civil rights movement.

— Henry Rollins

My audience went, 'Wait, why is she singing jazz? What's going on?' And then they went, 'Oh, because she can. Because she loves it.'…

— Lady Gaga

One thing that sticks in my mind is that jazz means freedom and openness. It's a music that, although it developed out of the…

— Herbie Hancock

From blood banking to the modern subway, from jazz to social justice, the contributions of African Americans have shaped and molded and influenced our…

— Bill Frist

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

— Herbie Hancock

I love, you know, a lot of jazz, John Coltrane.

— Rakim

“This development signified also that jazz would someday have to contend with the idea of its being an art (since that was the white…

— Anonymous

My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden.

— Mose Allison

I believe that blues and jazz are the two uniquely American contributions into music.

— Edgar Winter

In the sense that I also try to reflect the fullness of the black experience, I’m very much a jazz poet.

— Jayne Cortez