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.

I don't need much coaxing.

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.

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.

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