Alicia Keys

In the 80s, when I was a little girl, this whole Midtown area was a different world. These are the streets that I walked, and learned my lessons on, and heard the music, and witnessed disenfranchised people, and people who just had dreams and hopes. Every pimp, every prostitute, every drug dealer, every Broadway dreamer wishing they could be a writer, or a musician, or an actor.

New artists can own their content and completely build their base and their following without having to sell or be owned by anybody and it creates such a diversity.

Once I became a mother I knew that I was strong, but not ready to do what I’m doing now

The rain can’t stop the vibes that are going to be created TODAY!!!

I always feel excited when I can do something that’s about what I believe in.

We think – or maybe we’re shown – that the only way to express ourselves is through that very sexy energy. I think there’s more than that which shows our power. For me, I sometimes feel the most sexy when I’m totally covered head to toe.

Sometimes there are no gigs, but the main thing is still the music.

Music is interior decoration.

The truth is I never gave it much thought. I just played what I had to play.

Why Jazz? This is just the way I see music.

For me, the most important thing is the element of chance that is built into a live performance. The very great drawback of recorded sound is the fact that it is always the same. No matter how wonderful a recording is, I know that I couldn’t live with it–even of my own music–with the same nuances forever.

People will always need love, romance, a tender touch and really personal and deeply felt music.

All we are saying is give peace a chance.

Django was the definitive genius on the guitar, and the depth of his gift was so spectacular.

I’m sure critics have their purpose, and they’re supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what he did.

It’s just exciting to be part of something that is brand-new.

I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn’t only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around.

There has always been a tension between Jazz as a commercial music and as an art form.

If there is no dance, there is not music.

If you can’t play the blues, you might as well hang it up.

What don’t I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain’t nobody here saying, ‘You’d better learn this.’ But I still think I’ve got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me.