Do you think Duke Ellington didn't listen to Debussy? Louis Armstrong loved opera, did you know that? Name me a jazz pianist who wasn't influenced by European music!

My own Brubeck Institute in California is turning out fantastic young jazz players, and I know great things will happen.

Jazz is about the only form of art existing today in which there is freedom of the individual without the loss of group contact.

It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.

Most of the international acceptance of jazz education can be traced to the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, and the wonderful program they inaugurated.

I think the church should strive to give parishioners good music. Music is as necessary for worship as a building with a beautiful altar, artwork, and stained-glass windows. Together they create an environment conducive to worship and contemplation. We are not in church for entertainment, but to worship.

I had the first integrated Army band in World War II.