I was able to work with the best musicians in Kansas City starting when I was really young

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.

My older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in classical situations. He was already an amazing talent.

Music is one big thing to me.

It is Jazz's very nature to change, to develop & adapt to the circumstances of its environment.

If you plan on continuing a tradition, it might be a good idea to find out just what tradition it is that you intend to continue.

It's a shame that jazz is now being turned into dried fruit. It's becoming quantized, diced and defined. It's becoming an idiom. To me if it's anything, jazz is a verb ? it's more like a process than it is a thing.