A guy like me could not necessarily be acceptable to the components, which were coming together to define what this time period would be about and yet, I must say hurray for the Creator.
But that's a racist assumption, the assumption that someone's rhythm is more superior than someone else's rhythm. But these are the tradeoff assumptions.
Everybody in America is angry about something.
Five point five billion dollars would be maybe asking for too much.
How wonderful it is that we have so much diversity in human experience.
How would I want my work to be perceived or referred to? I would say it is just an opportunity effort, an effort to take advantage of an opportunity.
I am interested in the study of music and the discipline of music and the experience of music and music as a esoteric mechanism to continue my real intentions.
I am most certainly interested in architectonic targets and the question of identity.
I am viewed as the Negro who has gone outside of the categories assigned to me.
I believe that some aspect of this quality is going to be a component of the third millennium.
I believe that the coming time cycle promises to be totally dynamic.
I could think where the jazz business complex would not see my work as being correct for jazz.
I have just wanted to do my work. I wanted to have the right of definition. The right of definition in my opinion was part of what that struggle was at the time period, the Sixties.
I most certainly wanted to be successful in the way the concept is classically defined.
I thank the Creator of the universe to have discovered the discipline of music was the greatest gift that I could have been given, the possibility to be a student working in the world.
I think of the great experience of Charlie Mingus, who demonstrated another unique aspect of modeling, musics which changed speeds, suites, double compositions.
I wanted a system that would be equal to the dynamics of curiosity. I wanted to have a music where I could have some fun.
I wanted the right to define a proposition that would make sense for me based on the experiences I was having.
I wanted to build a system that would give me the possibility to keep adding to it.
I wanted to live. I wanted to be alive. This experience goes by very quickly. Part of the radiance of a moment, in my opinion, involves that which we call music.
I went to Paris for the first time. I had a one way ticket and fifty dollars. If the customs agent had asked to see my return ticket home, they probably would not have let me in Paris.
I would find myself backing away from all of the "isms," all of the communities. I have always been able to be misused by every community But that is OK. I would rather be misused than neglected.
I would have preferred in the beginning to have a normal life. That's what I wanted like everyone else, to work hard and to have a good material existence, the whole bit.
I would think that the African American nationalists would think we could be much greater racists than the Europeans could ever be.
I'm very much aware in this time that time has gone by very quickly and I feel fortunate that there are things that I want to do and there is music.
I've been fortunate to discover something that I could give myself to and in the end, one has to do one's work and try to advance to whatever degree if possible.
I've only tried to work with what is possible. From the beginning, I most certainly was open to having success.
In fact, I've been very fortunate. I've discovered something that I love and I've tried to stay with it.
In other words, we have this special feeling and of course, the African American community believes that.
In the end, all a guy can ask for is a hearing.
In the end, I've gone through thirty-five years of reacting to these variables only to discover that in my isolation that actually life is not so bad.
In the last five, ten years, it has become necessary for me to back up a bit and continue to pursue my effort, this project that I've been working on for the last thirty five years.
In the time period of the Sixties, I wanted the right to do what I wanted to do with my own definitions.
Is my interest in mathematics healthy or not healthy? I don't have the slightest idea, but I will say this much.
It is not the kind of thing that the jazz structure is prepared to deal with.
It is really just a question in my opinion of allowing for diversity in the various quadrants and idioms and suddenly, some of these questions would be answered even before they're asked.
It was an attempt to solidify the music and to respond to the vibrational challenge of that time period, the vibrational challenge being the future, the hope of the future.
It's an extension of my love for melody. It is an extension of my love for poetic space.
Jazz people couldn't use a guy like me because my work doesn't come separate from defined components.
Most African Americans, especially the men and women from my generation, would accept the nationalist gambit that says only European Americans can be racists, which is an interesting gambit.
My life has been very beautiful and complex. I have been the recipient of many positive experiences and yes, I have made more than my share of mistakes.
My music system for me is an extension of model railroad set. It's an extension of my love of TV cameras and TV network systems.
No one tried to tell the other what to think. It was a multiple hierarchical psychology taking place.
Nobody has everything in their life. But I'm glad or at least, I feel fortunate to know at fifty-six, that there is a small group around the planet who can hear my work and I'm happy about that.
Normally, the African American nationalist sector says anything you can do, I can do better.
Our people are spoiled. Our people are the recipients of some of the greatest advances on this planet, but nobody sees it.
So I try not to take my struggle as a target personal cosmic phenomenon and to realize instead that it was an opportunity to struggle.
So the question then is not what Braxton is doing, but suddenly I am operating from this deficit.
So, yes, I am in the underground, but actually, it feels like home.
Suddenly they switch to Bill Gates or any of the visionaries who've become very successful.
That is all I could ask for. So, yes, in many ways, I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet.
That means that my effort is not in total isolation. I never meant for it to be esoteric in the sense of not something that a broader sector of the public could relate to.
That's music. You're walking down the street and the sun comes up and no matter how bad things are, at least you're not Timothy McVeigh.
The arguments from the Fifties again would be the polarity arguments that would resurface in the Sixties.
The organization was not perceived as a bi-plane political operative, but rather a collective where we can begin to re-evaluate the components of our situation.
The word music is a convenient way to talk about what I'm interested in, but actually, in some ways, it's a limitation.
There is the wonderful discipline of music and the ability of music to keep on opening up fresh prospects. I must say, what a discipline!
This has been the game that has been played against guys like me from every sector.
This time period has been a period that I refer to as a period in exile for me.
This would become, for me, the most significant gathering of musicians of its kind historically. This would be like a poignant definition in the evolution of the music.
Tomorrow, I will be completely out of money and I'm going around trying to borrow money from my friends to get my car started, so let me say, thank you very much, Mr. Jung. This keeps me going.
We evaluate the great work of Scott Joplin and in case of a guy like myself, I wanted the right to listen to whatever I wanted to listen to and to integrate whatever I wanted to integrate.
We've seen this in Reconstruction.
What would I take back in my own life? What would I focus on? I don't know. I would say, yes, I have had to struggle in my life, but then everybody has to struggle in their life.
When I think about the time period in the Sixties, I think about the great work of John Coltrane that demonstrated one form of modeling.
You're not a victim unless you want to be a victim. If you are going to be a victim, at least be a victim on the tri-plane.
You're talking to a person and you both come to a vibration where you understand something and someone smiles.
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