Im always trying to find connections between things. That art is the juxtaposition of a lot of things that seem unrelated but add up to something recognizable.

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

...to me if it's anything, jazz is a verb-it's more like a process than it is a thing.

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

My first relationship to any kind of musical situation is as a listener.

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.

Players get to that intermediate level where they can already play pretty good, and that's kind of a dangerous period because they tend to start playing only the things that they can play, rather than the things they can't.