When a human being is oppressed, the natural tendency is to feel anger. Jazz is a response to oppression that is not bullets and blood. Jazz is the expression of harmony ... and at the same time of hope and freedom.

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

You don't need the fame to be vital.

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.

A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students' creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves.

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

The cool thing is that jazz is really a wonderful example of the great characteristics of Buddhism and great characteristics of the human spirit. Because in jazz we share, we listen to each other, we respect each other, we are creating in the moment. At our best, we're non-judgmental.