The best musicians are not the best players, they're the best listeners.

I think that the melodic piece of the puzzle in music is the most esoteric and difficult to quantify.

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.

More and more as time has gone on, I realize that playing is really more about listening than it is about playing.

If jazz has to be termed as a wave, then music is a sea, but if the reflectors in the water is the chord.

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 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!