I don't think that jazz, as any kind of an art form, has any permanence attached to it, apart from the practitioners of it.

The whole reason for Jazz at the Philharmonic was to take it to places where I could break down segregation.

In 1958, I decided that I was going to live in Europe permanently. So in 1959 I moved to Lugano, Switzerland.

I don't know who's 18 years old today that, 20 years hence, is going to be a jazz fan.

I don't say that the supposed Civil Rights development is a myth, but it's a matter of dealing with reality. It's purely peripheral and, in many cases, it's just a facade.

At Verve, my bookkeeper would invariably say, 'Well, why do you want to put out Roy Eldridge?' Or 'Why do you want to put out Ben Webster? They don't sell.' And I'd say, 'Well, whether they sell or not, they're important, they should be recorded and they're what Verve stands for, so we don't have to discuss that any further.

If I were to put on Barbra Streisand and Duke Ellington, one might say the combination isn't good.