Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That's why I wanted the clarinet.

Sound is the first thing that we tune into.

You just keep playing. If someone special comes along and organizes it in a new way, then you'll have another approach and everybody will jump on it to try to learn.

That's kind of my goal: to build a new row of meaningful tones.

Many people do think it's naive to improvise in front of paying customers. I'm not saying one way is better than another.

I always felt as a horn player, a jam session wasn't satisfying enough for me. I should have been a rhythm section player, actually.

Labels don't mean anything to me. I'm trying to play as passionately as I'm able to. If they want to call that cool, that's fine. Just spell the name right, is the formula.