It's part of life to have obstacles. It's about overcoming obstacles; that's the key to happiness.

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

I don't think there are any pure Africans of the African Americans, but the African part of our history was pretty much taken away from us during slavery, so the 60s gave us a chance, because of the civil rights movement, to kind of re-examine and make some sort of formal connection to our African-ness.

Jazz is a music that is open enough to borrow from any other form of music, and has the strength to influence any other form of music.

The music becomes something that is its own entity.

Fact is that I played piano and performed, as a young kid, a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra . Don't forget I was only eleven-years-old and to be on the stage at that age had tremendous impact on me. Basically love for classical music and performing as a kid on the big stage probably led toward this decision, which meant that music is going to be my big love but also my profession.