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.

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

There are a lot of records coming out, in every field of music, not just jazz.

Buddhism has turned me on to my humanness, and is challenging my humanness so that I can become more human.

I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing jazz ever since.

The arts have always served relationships between people of different cultures so well. In a way, the arts function as a very serious kind of ambassador.

The music becomes something that is its own entity.