I gave up my base in popular culture when I left the Tonight Show.

Everybody talks about finding your voice. Do your homework and your voice will find you.

We all played bad before we played good.

So much of Jazz doesn't have an audience other than music students or musicians.

What is jazz? It, It's almost like asking, What is French? Jazz is a musical language. It's a musical dialect that actually embodies the spirit of America.

I like to make records sound good. I'm more like a reducer than a producer. If an artist cannot produce themselves, what's the point?

If youre going to use standards as criteria for signing musicians, you can sign thousands. If youre going to use some sort of conceptual interpretation thats based on the tradition of those standards, but is trying to move away from it, youre down to about 10 people or so.