My older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in classical situations. He was already an amazing talent.

I just have never seen anyone build anything significant in any field without having a deep and detailed sense of what they are building on.

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.

If you plan on continuing a tradition, it might be a good idea to find out just what tradition it is that you intend to continue.

The Unity Band project has been life-changing for me. I have led many groups of talented musicians, but this is unlike anything else.

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.

I don't know if I would qualify as mainstream. I think I have managed to function pretty successfully on the fringes of the music world and have been able to play exactly what I have wanted the way I have wanted