Getting the Oscar had the biggest impression on me.

We are eternally linked not just to each other but our environment.

We need to put into practice the idea of embracing other cultures. We need to be shaping the kind of world we want to live in instead of waiting for someone else or some other entities to do it for us.

So much of what I create has been due to the influence of Miles Davis and Donald Byrd, and so many of those that have passed on. Their music, their legacy lives on with the rest of us because we are so highly influenced by their experience and what they have given us.

The music becomes something that is its own entity.

I hope that I can make good music out of whatever genre I go into. Just to prove to myself that I can.

I'm always interested in looking forward toward the future. Carving out new ways of looking at things.