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].

[Charles McPherson] was kind enough to go to a record gig of mine where we recorded a song of his.

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

I think that's important to remember - That we're blessed to even be able to attempt to do this [music].

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.

I was also sitting in from the middle of senior year of high school at Sweet Basil, it was a great club in New York.

Sometimes you think "Okay, well I'm going to play my horn, and I'm going to study Charlie "Bird" Parker solos or [John Coltrain] or whatever." But as [Phil Wood] said to me, "Man, Bird listened to everything."