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.

Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker seemed so sophisticated and bad. I wanted to be like that.

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

When you are studying jazz, the best thing to do is listen to records or listen to live music. It isn't as though you go to a teacher. You just listen as much as you can and absorb everything.

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 you have 13 horns, and one is soloing, you have 12 people to play the richest, fullest chord you could ever imagine behind that solo.

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.