I have learned through time that not everyone is interested in the kinds of things that fascinate me.

I know I’m an African-American, and I know I play the saxophone, but I’m not a jazz musician. I’m not a classical musician, either. My music is like my life: It’s in between these areas.

I'm a post-Abner Jay kind of guy mixed with Roger Corman and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.

For the most basic assumption that dictated my early attempts to respond to creative music commentary was the mistaken belief that western journalists had some fundamental understanding of black creativity—or even western creativity—but this assumption was seriously in error.

I am viewed as the Negro who has gone outside of the categories assigned to me.

The word music is a convenient way to talk about what I'm interested in, but actually, in some ways, it's a limitation.

Everybody in America is angry about something.