I have to care and I have to be honest and have the courage to be vulnerable. If that happens, then that's the best I can do. To just be a puppet for the audience is not very courageous. Just to do whatever they say they want - because a lot of times people will hear something new that they hadn't heard before and get turned on by a new experience and will want to hear more of that.

Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose.

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.

Nobody told me I was a child prodigy.

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

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.