Smokin' at the Half Note is the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made. It is also the record that taught me how to play.

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

I don't worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about Jazz.

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 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.

I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level.