The way to learn the language is to rip off other players. As Benny Golson told me, "We all start off sounding like other cats. And gradually, a lick here or there,we start to sound like ourselves. But it takes a long time to do so..." That'swhat he told me, and it worked for me.

Pop doesn't really look back. It can't. What makes pop work is simplicity.

Coltrane came to New Orleans one day and he was talking about the jazz scene. And Coltrane mentions that the problem with jazz was that there were too few groups.

We played it as long as we could play it on that CD and I think it might be 50 minutes, maybe. What you have to do is play a couple of songs and then get off the stage because everything that trails it sounds stupid.

You don't know what you like, you like what you know. In order to know what you like, you have to know everything.

You know, being America, being the land of "number ones", everyone wants to be a leader before they follow.

A lot of musicians have a tough time hearing what we're doing in a trio format.