What I really have in my head, my imagination, my understanding of music, I never really get that out.

The black hole in democracy is integrity. The great unspoken is integrity. When integrity is not first and foremost, it's quite palpable but not visible. It's always there. Jazz highlights it because musicians and jazz always represented a high level of integrity.

We looked up to our father. He still is much greater than us.

New Orleans had a great tradition of celebration. Opera, military marching bands, folk music, the blues, different types of church music, ragtime, echoes of traditional African drumming, and all of the dance styles that went with this music could be heard and seen throughout the city. When all of these kinds of music blended into one, jazz was born.

New Orleans - the real New Orleans - is the soul of the country.

I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.

Nothing else will ever capture the democratic process in sound as perfectly as Jazz.