Tastes are created by the business interests. How else can you explain the popularity of Al Hirt?

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

Most customers, by the time the musicians reach the second set, are to some extent inebriated. They don't care what you play anyway.

I was born swinging and clapped my hands in church as a little boy, but I've grown up and I like to do things other than just swing. But blues can do more than just swing.

I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.

I never heard my music played the way I heard it in my head.

Just because I'm playing jazz I don't forget about me. I play or write me, the way I feel, through jazz, or whatever.