I get so much from having the opportunity to interface with the younger people and to bring information to them and to represent our culture and our way of life. The feeling and the warmth and the love, it's unbelievable. The type of exchange that goes on between students and teachers or visiting people who are doing master classes, and not just when they're musicians. Even general classes, when the students are not necessarily musicians.

The heart of a music is its rhythm. The heart of rhythm section music is the rhythm.

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

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.

Jazz music is the power of now.

Having heard Clifford Brown play all those fast runs, I used to really practice Clarke trumpet exercises all day long so that I could play fast. That's all I wanted to do. I was like a child with a toy.

We learn a language through its song, and even if you don't have music you have the song of people you love's voice, and you'll notice that song in their voice.