I try to play the bare essence, to let everything be just what it's supposed to be.
As a musician you have to keep one foot back in the past and have one foot forward into the future.
I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. It's time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. It's time for us to do it ourselves and tell it like it is.
I'd like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition.
When I grow up I want to be just like Benny Carter!
There have been two great revelations in my life: The first was bepop, the second was homeopathy.