What I want to happen is to be really creative, and to play something new in the improvisations, every time.

Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and many other great jazz musicians objected to their music being called jazz. While the outside world may want to put a label on it, those who create it think of it just as music, and tend not to classify it.

When things are going well, I hate to quit.

When I was first aware that I couldn't read music I didn't know I couldn't read because I could play the music that was in front of me.

Your mother’s heartbeat is the first sound you ever hear and your own heartbeat is the last.

I'm always hoping for the nights that are inspired where you almost have an out of body experience

I used to take my mother to Yosemite. When I turned 14, I got my driver's license, and that's where she'd want to go, so I'd go take her there for two weeks.