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

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

If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that you play that determines if it's good or bad.

I think the greatest sound in the world is the human voice.

When I heard Coleman Hawkins, I learned to play ballads

In high school I was best in music class on the trumpet, but the prizes went to the boys with blue eyes. I made up my mind to outdo anybody white on my horn.

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.