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

If you listen to a lot of the songs that are popular now, there's very little melody in there. People love the beat. But to musicians, it's melody, because we understand how elusive it is and how hard it is to hold.

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

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?

My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.

One of the things that's clear to me from interviews that I've read is that the more popular successful jazz musicians had audiences above and beyond the music community.

It's hard to get into Newsweek because, as more of our former intellectual magazines take on a pop focus, if there's no buzz, there's no interest.