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.

This is our bandstand. If you don't want to play, get up off the instrument and leave.

There are forces all around you who wish to exploit division, rob you of your freedom, and tell you what to think. But young folks can rekindle the weary spirit of a slumbering nation.

My father was a teacher, my mama was a community worker, I taught in so many schools. So when you get that experience of how to communicate with younger people, put that hand on them and give them that old-school feeling, the maturity and adult, a lot of our kids just need the feeling of that love, and that's the frame of reference that I teach from and that's the frame of reference that all of our musicians in the Jazz at Lincoln Center.

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.

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

If you want to be different, do something different.