I never thought I was playing black music. I was just playing music, the stuff I liked. I sang blues at parties and things when I was a kid.

I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me.

I haven't stopped and I don't plan on stoppin' any time soon.

I do some concerts. At the moment, I'm being helped a lot by a gig I play in London, which is Pizza Express.

I finally decided if I was going to make a living, I was gonna have to come to New York.

I'm happy whenever anybody does my material. I don't care what they do with it. I do what I want to with other people's songs.

I never bothered about keeping track.Every now and then someone records one of my songs, and I get credit for it.