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.

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

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.

Out of Coltrane's whole history, there are things which I think are great from all the periods.

I listen to classical music very much. There's a lot of jazz that I don't enjoy listening to.

As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be Jazz.

Bernstein grew up in my building in New York. He's a very, very fine player. When he was a kid, he came by to find out what was going on in the world of jazz.