So What or Kind of Blue were done in that era, the right hour, the right day. It's over; it's on the record.

First you imitate, then you innovate.

There are no wrong notes.

Some of [drummers] drop time because they want to hear what you're doin'.

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.

As long as I've been playing, they never say I done anything. They always say that some white guy did it.

The way you change and help music is by tryin' to invent new ways to play