I realized that equipment really had little to do with why I sound like the way I sound

Music is one big thing to me.

I try to be prepared for the moment, through understanding, and being warmed up, knowing all about chords and scales, so I don't even have to think and I can get right to what it is I want to say.

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.

And if I ever DO see [Kenny G] anywhere, at any function - he WILL get a piece of my mind, and maybe a guitar wrapped around his head.

Jazz demands that you bring to it things that are valuable to you, that are personal to you.

I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level.