When you work with great musicians, they are always a part of you . . . their spirits are walking around in me, so they're still here and passing it on to others.

Drummers - sometimes they play and they listen. And that little listen takes a speck away from the right tempo.

[Prince] could very well be the Duke Ellington of Rock 'n' Roll.

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

[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.

It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.

I would never try and play like Harry James, because I don't like his tone - for me. It's just white. You know what I mean? He has what we black trumpet players call a white sound. But it's for white music ... I can tell a white trumpet player, just listening to a record. There'll be something he'll do that'll let me know that he's white.