If a person plays dissonance long enough, it will sound like consonance. It's a language that was alien and then it's less and less alien as it continues to live.

Ideally, I'd like to be the eternal novice, for then only the surprises would be endless.

Wynton Marsalis is jazzy the same way someone who drives a BMW is sporty.

If I'm not a jazz player all the time, I've at least been cued in to what I do by jazz.

When I joined the band I didn't know any of the tunes, and when I left the band I didn't know any of the tunes!

I'm not talking ideas, or even presentation. It's like in politics: You have to sell something to become an electric player - like your skin or your heart.

When you're up against an electric band like that, it's like you're on two separate planets.