When you fuel up with purpose you find the excitement in the mundane, the passion in the everyday, the extraordinary in the ordinary.

There is a very small chance that you might be really brilliant and really talented.

There are a lot of different ways you can be a part of this music and love it and make a contribution that's personal to you.

There's a famous story about Dizzy [Gillespie] and Art Blakey taking him aside, and spending a whole night-long talk with [Phil Wood], "Man we believe in you. You can play. So don't be walking around with a frown on your face or whatever, getting yourself into trouble. You have got a gift, and nobody is going to take that away from you." So that meant the world to him.

Negative people often tend to create negative cultures whereas positive corporate cultures are created by positive people.

I have to say, music was always my self preservation survival technique. This sort of sacred space in my life and in my mind.

When I was 13, 14, 15, I had played in a couple of jazz ensembles. I didn't know anything about harmony, about II-V-I, though I had learned my scales with Caesar [DiMauro].