Don't settle for style. Succeed in substance.

Benny Goodman's band was integrated before baseball. Even before it was physically integrated, music was integrated. Everyone listened to Armstrong and Ellington. The 20s was called the Jazz Age. It's part of being American.

And my identity...I never really wondered about it because, unfortunately, I sounded like myself. People be saying I sound like Miles or Clifford Brown.

Through first-class education, a generation marches down the long uncertain road of the future with confidence.

Music is always for the listener, but the first listener is always the musician

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

The majority of the high schools and the public schools in N.Y.C. don't even have band programs. Hip-hop in a lot of ways is an outgrowth of a lack of instruments and a desire to play music, so we can't really fault the kids for that.