By the latter part of high school, by the middle of junior year in high school, Jay Rodriguez played me some Irakere records that that Paquito [D'Rivera] was on. And he also played me and our friend, Curtis Haywood, some Phil Woods records. And when I heard Phil, I just about lost my mind. I was playing the Charlie Parker Omnibook as part of my lessons. This was the '80s. There was no YouTube and all that. And we had three or four jazz records at that point.

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

I saw that [music] reflected in my mother when we listened to these records [of Bob Gordon]. And I felt it too.

Instead of being disappointed about where you are, be optimistic about where you are going.

I don't know that there was a moment, like one specific moment where I was like "Ugh. Now what do I do?" I was just always like, "I'm just in here and if I have to fight with myself or ask for help or just be lost for a little while, but I'm just going to keep looking." Because music was all I had.

The best thing you can do is just go and have fun with [competition].

We still talk about [school band]. Almost 40 years later. It's like people are talking about, "Man we need to have a morning band reunion".