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.

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

The economic picture in the States today doesn't allow for jazz concerts in a tour fashion. People now are too used to the Festival, which gives them more names for the same price.

To play today in London, next week in Madrid and the week after that in Warsaw is a bit better than playing Newark and Baltimore and Philadelphia. I've been doing that for 20 years.

As long as we're in a democracy, I have to give what I think the majority of people will enjoy.

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.

My function at Verve was that of a genuine producer in artists and repertoire.