Failure is not meant to be final and fatal.... It is meant to refine you to be all that you are meant to be.

Many of the people I'm gratified to see have gotten acclaim like Mark Turner or Bill Charlap. Ed Simon or Maria Schneider or Jim McNeely or Scott Robinson. Ken Peplowski, who is a friend and somebody I admire a lot.

I was in choir [at school].

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

I love to see people recognized [me on scene].

Sometimes I say to my students, "We get to come and listen to our favorite recordings and try to learn from them and emulate that and hopefully we can inspire other people the way we've been inspired."

So often the difference between success and failure is belief. Belief leads to action and execution.