I'd like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition.

Bop is at the end of the road. Now everybody wants dance music.

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.

Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins.

One of the reasons we're here is to be a part of this process of exchange.

They're not particular whether you're playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance.

Nothing surpasses my performances with small bands, especially with Charlie Parker. A small band doesn't forestall creativity.