You've got to learn your instrument.

I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.

When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

Bop is no love-child of jazz.

Don't be afraid, just play the music.