Most guys at Berklee are going to wind up truck drivers.

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

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

I love playing and working on music. It is something that I feel really lucky to be able to spend my life doing. And I don't sleep much!

Smokin' at the Half Note is the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made. It is also the record that taught me how to play.

Its more about conception and touch and spirit and soul than whether my hardware was in place.

I have to admit that more and more lately, the whole idea of jazz as an idiom is one that I've completely rejected. I just don't see it as an idiomatic thing any more...To me, if jazz is anything, it's a process, and maybe a verb, but it's not a thing. It's a form that demands that you bring to it things athat are valuable to you, that are personal to you. That, for me, is a pretty serious distinction that doesn't have anything to do with blues, or swing, or any of these other things that tend to be listed as essentials in order for music to be jazz with a capital J.