I don't believe music can be free unless it has something to be free from.
In 1994, I started touring again and I recorded two albums for Chesky Jazz.
I find it very difficult to compose when I'm not playing.
I write music people enjoy playing and listening to, and I have a group that loves playing the music.
With four people you can create one very strong kind of energy, but if you can get 65 people working together, and swinging together, that's a whole other kind of energy.
Not with the Rochester Philharmonic, but I formed my own orchestra, made up of musicians from the Eastman School, where I'm on the faculty now, direct the Jazz Ensemble and teach improvisation classes.