It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.

People are approaching electronic levels in music; although not all of it happens to tickle my fancy

When [Billy] Strayhorn came on the scene, he just blew us away.

Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra

Now, the instrumentation in the jazz band and the jazz dance band has gone through many evolutions. For instance, in the 'twenties the tradition was two or three saxophones

People talk about innovations and evolutions and that kind of thing; I don't understand about that nonsense. It's like, all instruments are there to use all the time

What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.