A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other's ideas.

You know, when I'm playing, I think of myself in front of the Wailing Wall with a saxophone in my hands, and I'm davening, I'm really telling it to the Wall.

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

There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. they are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence.

I played in rhumba bands, mickey mouse bands; all kinds of bands.

When I'm alcohol-free now and even to see the world around me, I appreciate it, but I never truly enjoy too much of it maybe because I feel like I'm a working musician. There are some joyous moments, but I will not think a joyous moment.

I appreciate men like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins very much.