The act of multitrack recording is the act of arranging.

Benny [Carter] opened the eyes of a lot of producers and studios, so that they could understand that you could go to blacks for other things outside of blues and barbecue. He's a total musician. He was the pioneer, he was the foundation. He made it possible for that doubt to be taken away.

I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.

There's power in the collective. If you don't believe me, just watch a symphony orchestra with a conductor and 120 people who are thinking about exactly the same thing at the same moment - no babies, no stock markets, no mortgages. Just 32nd notes.

Count Basie practically adopted me at 13. We became closer and closer and I ended up conducting for him and Sinatra.

I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything.

I improvised my life along the way - I just moved step-by-step. And I knew that if I got better, something would happen.