Don't waste your energy on those who don't get on your bus.

You do [jazz] because you love it and hope many some others may as well. You do this because you need it.

When I was a kid, I always saw these pictures of a man called Bob Gordon with a baritone saxophone, who I understood was my father. Turns out he wasn't. He was my mother's first husband.

I had made a couple of records in Europe. One as a leader, and one as a sideman before that. It was what it was. I started to work with Maria Schneider around that period and some other people, I started to get called to sub at the Vanguard in my mid-20s.

[Winning the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition]definitely opened some doors.

Sense of community was really fostered by Larry Laurenzano, who was a great educator.

I took some comp for non-comp major classes with Giacomo Bracali and Ludmila Ulela, who was a really famous composition teacher.