I feel that I have an obligation to jazz and also to myself to play as good as I can play.

I think what we need is a more welcoming mode from the people who put on a hundred million country-western shows on television. How about a monthly jazz show?

...this is my dilemma. I'm a guy who makes things up as I go along, so nothing is ever finished - there are so many layers. So when you solo, yeah, you might get into one thing, but then, hey, everything has implications! You can hear the next level. And that's how I feel about improvising - there's always another level.

Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be jazz.

America is deeply rooted in Negro culture: its colloquialisms; its humor; its music.

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.

I feel that I have an obligation to jazz and also to myself to play as good as I can play.