Frank Kogan

by "rather than" i didn't especially mean that *he* disavowed anything explicitly -- more that the thing he said was the centre wasn't what you'd perhaps expect him to say

so this:
james brown also often said that the centre of his music was jazz, rather than blues or gospel
means:
james brown also often said "the centre of my music is jazz", where you'd perhaps expect him to say blues or gospel -- but actually "centre" is my way of saying it, not his

on a quick skim i found this quote (from cynthia rose's book, Living in America: the Soul Sage of James Brown):
"My first influence was gospel, but my second influence is jazz. I do like some blues, but I don't really go too deep there. I probably only really like two or three blues artists. I have pretty big jazz feelings, though. I been right through that book."

Which maybe in fact does put gospel at the centre, but certainly then unexpectedly complicates that -- bcz what's the relationship of jazz to gospel? -- and I then oversimplified this in my memory, maybe? (Except I actually think it was another quote i'm remembering, which I haven't re-found: anyway, I still think this is an under-explored aspect... Rose does discuss it a little, for a paragraph, then moves elsewhere (it's a very short book, though full of fascinating stuff)