Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

The main thing in my life...is that I really need to go home and practice.

There has to be a real strong reason to do something with someone for me.

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history.

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.

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

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.