Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It

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text excerpt

The blues? Man, I didn't start playing the blues ever. That was in me before I was born and I've been playing and living the blues ever since. That's the way you've gotta play them. You've got to live the blues, and with us that's natural--it's born in us to live the blues.

I think that the first thing I can remember was my mother singing the blues as she would sit along in the evenings in our place in Dallas, Texas, where I was born. I can't remember the words to those blues, but she could sing you blues right now like you never heard before. I used to listen to her singing there at night, and knew then that the blues was in me too. Everyone down there sang the blues. In fact, they still do. Go any place where there's a group of Negroes, and you'll hear them singing blues you never heard of--wonderful blues.

excerpt from 'Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It' pp. 249 (158 words)

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