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.

I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is

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

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

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

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 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