Getting the Oscar had the biggest impression on me.

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.

Miles' sessions were not typical of anybody else's sessions. They were totally unique.

I'm aware that a lot of what is happening in jazz has not had a very dynamic change in a long time.

So I didn't actually change my name the way some people did.

One thing that sticks in my mind is that jazz means freedom and openness. It's a music that, although it developed out of the African American experience, speaks more about the human experience than the experience of a particular people.

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