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.

It would be really hard to get serious about anything political today unless it was a joke.

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.

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.

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'.

Living composers writing for big band are very few and far between. There are not a lot of them, and I have a talent for doing it. I am zeroing in on what I do best.