I like Simon Cowell - look at how many great artists have come out of the U.K. because of him.

I like Simon Cowell - look at how many great artists have come out of the U.K. because of him.

Of course we've lost so many superstars who've made jazz what it is. We've lost so many musicians who created new things and changed the way we think about music and who took jazz to a new level. So jazz is suffering from that. But we still have a lot of incredible people playing jazz in the world. We have a lot of people leading the way.

The greatest guitar player in the world today for me is Paco de Lucia, who is actually Spanish.

There is no finer guitarist than Kenny Burrell

You might not feel like playing pretty all the time. Instead, you might want to play something nasty....you might want to play something out of context with the tune. It might be a note that creates so much tension it becomes unpleasant, but you want it to sound that way.

No matter what they take from me, they can't take away my dignity.