Jazz never ends... it just continues.

I feel that L.A. has not always been my strongest base for support. That can be for various reasons.

I have seen great jazz musicians die obscure and drinking themselves to death and not really being able to get any work and working in small, funky jazz clubs.

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one's own.

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

I have always been a person who is concerned with the dignity of jazz music and the way jazz musicians have been treated and are treated, and the fact that the music has not been given the kind of due that it deserves.