I began to realize that some of the things Ornette Coleman had said about things being played three or fours ways, independently of each other, were true because Bach had also composed that way.

I used to enjoy all the white bands when I was a kid listening to the radio. But the record companies, they take music and label it - like, they say "rock". Because the white singers can't sound like James Brown, they call him "soul". They've been doing that for years. That's the prejudice crap.

Play what you know and then play above that

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

Catch Harry Belafonte. He's got a helluva rhythm section.And so have the Pointer Sisters. And that little guy with Sammy Clayton. He plays the whole show with 40 members.

It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.