You have to see your unimportance before you can see your importance and your significance to the world.

You have to see your unimportance before you can see your importance and your significance to the world.

I told my students the other day in class, which is about the spirituality and creativity as much as it is about music. I said, 'If you're walking down the street and you see a baby carriage, and there's a baby in the carriage; you look down and your eyes meet the eyes of the baby. The baby looks at you: That's the kind of moment you're in when you're playing.

I've got a collection of songs that I've had, I keep adding to and they're all great American composers. I wanted to showcase American composers and I've done that on a lot of my records and played things by American composers that I really respect.

The bass, no matter what kind of music you're playing, it just enhances the sound and makes everything sound more beautiful and full. When the bass stops, the bottom kind of drops out of everything.

I just see myself as a human being that's concerned about life.

The whole underlying theme for the new music... is to communicate honest, human values, and in doing that to try to improve the quality of life.