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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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