I play piano and drums very poorly and French horn and tuba all equally as bad.

There's so much spirit of integration and democracy in jazz.

My older brother and myself always played together in bands, but we never knew we would be professional musicians.

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

Young kids are always singing and painting. When you get to that second and third grade level, you're supposed to put all that aside.

As you get older - for example, in our band we have members of our orchestra, like Carlos Enriquez and Ali Jackson and Walter Blanning. I taught them when they were in high school, and now they teach me.I'll regularly call Ali and say, "Man, can you break this rhythm down for me?" Or Carlos was actually our music director in Cuba, and he's been instrumental in a lot of my education, and I started to develop a saying with them, because they tease me all the time - you get older, you have that familiar relationship - I say, "You have to follow your young leadership, too."

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