Getting the Oscar had the biggest impression on me.

I try stuff. I synthesize what's of value with some of the other things I have at my disposal.

Music isn't about music, it's about life.

At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music.

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.

I think I was supposed to play jazz.

Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept. He and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were.