Players get to that intermediate level where they can already play pretty good, and that's kind of a dangerous period because they tend to start playing only the things that they can play, rather than the things they can't.

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

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

I saw A Hard Day's Night 12 or 13 times.

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.

Learning to play is mostly about learning to hear, and learning to really listen deeply to sound in a musical way is a lifetime's worth of work.

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