Jazz is a democratic musical form. We take our respective instruments & collectively create a thing of beauty.

Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers.

You can't write the same book twice. Though I've been in historical musical situations, I can't go back and do that again. And though I run into artistic crises, they keep my life interesting.

Music mirrors where we should go, have gone and can go. Music is an abstraction.

The people who really got me off were dealing with the musical potential of their instrument.

I think that the rhythm sections, drummers in particular, are the unsuing heroes of the music. It's the rhythm section that has changed the styles from one period to the other.

The American drummer is a one-man percussion orchestra.