I Always Make The Joke That I

I Think That Anybody From The 20th Century, Up To Now, Has To Be Aware That If It Wasn't For Louis Armstrong, We'd All Be Wearing Powdered Wigs. I Think That Louis Armstrong Loosened The World, Helped People To Be Able To Say "yeah," And To Walk With A Little Dip In Their Hip. Before Louis Armstrong, The World Was Definitely Square, Just Like Christopher Columbus Thought.

I Just Came From South Africa, A Place That Had Been In A Perpetual Uprising Since 1653, So The Uprising Had Become A Way Of Life In Our Culture And We Grew Up With Rallies And Strikes And Marches And Boycotts.

All My Experiences Removed Geography From My World.

When I Left South Africa In 1960 I Was 20 Years Old. I Wanted To Try To Get An Education, And Music Education Was Not Available For Me In South Africa.

I Had To Run Away From Home In Order To Be A Musician. Because I Came From A Family Of... My Father Was A Health Inspector; My Mother Was A Social Worker. And I Was Pretty Smart In School. So They Expected Me To Be Some Kind Of Academic - Schoolteacher, Or Doctor, Lawyer - And They Were Very Disappointed When I Told Them I Wanted To Be A Musician.