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I just worked my own personal thoughts into my music, and just kept at it until I found a way in.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
I came up not understanding that a lot of people didn't start to hear music until they went to college or were turned on by an older brother or sister.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks
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I enjoy music wherever it's coming from.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
I was always looking for evidence of these common musical roots, but I was too young to know that what I was doing was called ethnomusicology.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
As a kid, I always felt connected to Africa; it was something I was very proud of.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
It's just like heirloom tomatoes; this is heirloom music. We used to have all kinds of diversity in our poultry, in our vegetables, in our fruits, and slowly but surely the monoculture beast comes in. I'm saying that's not a good idea. And if it means that I gotta do it on my own, then I do it on my own.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
It's very interesting, the dynamics of popularity. When you do something all the time, you don't worry about whether it's trendy or not.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
My music is really fun music, with some pan-African and pan-American influences.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks
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I'm doing exactly what I should be doing, every day on the road.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
The one thing I've always demanded of the records I've made is that they be danceable.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
I've only been on MTV once as one of their 'Closet Classics,' with some bootleg footage of a 1970 tour I did in Holland. They didn't know what to make of my music, but they finally invented a name for it - world beat music.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
As a solo performer, it's total involvement. What I do is to break down the wall between audience and performer.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
When I was 5 or 6, I was messing around with the piano, and I listened to everything from Chopin to boogie-woogie.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
My mother was American, and my father was from the Caribbean, and there was a big open door into the world of humanity and music.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks
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In looking out into the world, it didn't look all that nice out there. And who were the nice people? Certainly Mahatma Gandhi was.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
I'm a composer, man.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
I'm always cracking up when I hear what people think I should be doing.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
My grandparents on my father's side came to this country from the Caribbean with a strong connection to Africa and no shame about it.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
I would have never gotten to college if it hadn't been for getting up at 4 A.M. and milking them Holsteins.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
I've got tons more stuff to do.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks
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It is, like the Mona Lisa, one of those masterpieces with which you will be outstandingly familiar long before you ever get to see it...it does not disappoint. It does not disappoint the first time you see it, nor the third time, nor even the 30th time...
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
I pretty much move around wherever I like.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
More and more people are finally realizing that in the heart of America, there's all this incredible music that wasn't widely heard before because it wasn't in the interest of those who feel they have to control the taste of the wider public.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks -
No matter what went down, music was always going to be a part of my life. What ultimately happened is that, over a period of time, I just kind of looked around and when like, 'Wow! I'm actually making a living doing this.'
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks