There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't improvising.

The rebuilding of New Orleans is an important point in the history of the United States.

I try to find the core values that are so fundamental that they transcend ethnic identity. That doesn't mean I run from it. I embrace African-American culture and I love it and embrace it, but it is a part of a human identity. So I'm always trying to make a larger human statement.

I think that when the education system started to be dismantled during the first Great Depression in the 1930s, we didn't recover from that.

And that's the soulful thing about playing: you offer something to somebody. You don't know if they'll like it, but you offer it.

Everything about the swing is about some guideline and some grid and the elegant way that you negotiate your way through that grid.

The main three components are the blues, improvisation - which is some kind of element that people are trying to make it up - and swing, which means even though they're making up music, they're trying to make it up together. It feels great, like you're having a great conversation with somebody.