As a musician you have to keep one foot back in the past and have one foot forward into the future.

There are a lot of great players... a lot of great players around, but Louie Bellson is really something special.

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

Men have died for this music. You can't get more serious than that.

The idea of life is to give and receive.

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

I was blessed that I got married early and had a good wife. That sort of kept me straight. Probably I would have been like Charlie Parker, you know, involved in drugs or alcohol or something like that if I hadn't had this stability.