Sometimes [playing free] doesn't happen, because maybe a guy's wife'll come in, you know, and his ego will catch him. If everybody's completely just straight-without any old ladies over here, a fourth of whisky over there; if it's balanced right, it'll come off. It has to be. But when you get egos involved with playing free, you can't do it.

You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.

I'm not messing around with nobody's woman. If I want a woman I go get her - you know what I mean?

I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician.

I can tell. I'm gifted with that, you know. When I hear that the tempo is slightly off, it's hard for me.

The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.

To keep creating you have to be about change.