I do very few standards. Hardly any. Other people's tunes that I do are usually obscure tunes, for the most part, although I do a couple of Duke Ellington tunes that are well known.

I just try to do as good job with the material as I can and play some jazz as well, some improvised music, and do that every night. Just see where it goes.

So I'm in my 51st year of playin' mostly nightclubs. I do some concerts.

There's a few tunes of mine that don't have jokes, but most of them have a joke and they have a humorous point of view somewhere.

As far as I'm concerned, the essentials of jazz are: melodic improvisation, melodic invention, swing, and instrumental personality.

I just have a lot off different influences.

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.