Avant-garde, jazz, pop, classical, country and western, rock, free, straight-ahead, etc. are ultimately meaningless terms in the face of the music being discussed at best - at worst, those terms often serve as code words for what is in fact a cultural / political discussion more than a musical one.

I think I have a basic sound aesthetic that is in most of what I do

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history.

One very fundamental thing has not changed and I realized that it will never change... is that I really need to go home and practice.

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

Somehow trumpet is the reference point for me it was actually my first instrument.

I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is