People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a Jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

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

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

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.

Its more about conception and touch and spirit and soul than whether my hardware was in place.

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.

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.