Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

Oscar Peterson plays the best ivory box I've ever heard.

I don't dig that two-beat jive the New Orleans cats play. My boys and I have to have four heavy beats to the bar and no cheating.

I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch.

I was always willing to say, "Let's see what happens," when something came up that looked like it might help me get a little closer to where I wanted to be . . .

Learn to deal with the valleys and the hills will take care of themselves.