The value of jazz still has to be clarified. People involve themselves with its superficialities without digging for its soul.

You don't rehearse jazz to death to get the camera angles.

The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument that is outside of your body.

The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it's still a melody.

My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.

You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.

We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records.