Love is the spiritual essence of what we do. Technique is the manifestation of the preparation and investment as a result of the love.

My mother always took my brothers and me to music lessons. There were six children. Our parents attended our concerts and encouraged us to study and enjoy many different types of music.

The young very seldom lead anything in our country today. It's been quite some time since a younger generation pushed an older one to a higher standard.

The Duke and Swing represent affirmation in the face of adversity.

Jazz music creates so many phenomenal figures.

To say that the Afro American created jazz doesn't mean anything bad about Anglo Americans, and I always teach my younger jazz musicians that at this point the entirety of the American tradition is your heritage, and you need to know it.

It's like we're suffering from an identity crisis, and that identity is in our arts and the fact that we don't find it chief amongst our agendas to teach our kids who we are as a nation and the battles we've had on this ground and how they've been successfully resolved. We can't enjoy the fruits of the labor of our ancestors.