When you're working in front of an audience, you have incentive to excel.

One of my earliest memories... I knew three full verses of the Star Spangled Banner when I was seven or eight years old. And one of the nuns discovered this phenomenon and I was actually sent around from classroom to classroom to do the whole thing.

Most blues don't have a beginning, middle, or end. You just cut a couple slices of blues.

When you're working in front of an audience, you have incentive to excel.

I think I have more in common with a carpenter than you might think. We're putting things together.

I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.

If I do a piece in my living room, if I practice it - and I have the tapes to prove this - it's not going to be as good as doing the same piece in front of an audience.