Listening is more important than anything else because that's what music is. Somebody is playing something and you're receiving it. It is sending and receiving.

I got started when I was 3 years old because my father was a music teacher and my lessons were free. Instead of learning to walk, you learn to play the piano.

I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

One performer whose band played my music better than I could myself was Art Farmer. He recorded 'Sing Me Softly of the Blues' and 'Ad Infinitum'.

There are times when what's happening in rock is the best music in the world, and there are times when there is nothing worthwhile at all.

When Ronald Reagan was elected I was on a bus traveling with a band in France. I wrote a little arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner in a minor key.

I still prefer the bebop of the '40s. The very stuff I started out with is still the best to me. I have come full circle.