I understood that if I wanted to work, the saxophone was the main instrument. The clarinet was what we call a double.

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

We all learn from each other, and I never really hung out with guys in that way, so I missed out.

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.

After playing now for 60 years, it's still very challenging for me to play a simple melody and have it clean and touch the reed at the proper time in the proper way.

Sound is the first thing that we tune into.