I worry more about the marketing that's taken hold since the 70s. The Jazz era, the Swing era, those were huge. Entire decades were named for music. In the 1940s - after World War II - changes in taxation, ballrooms closing, people moving to the suburbs, and the onset of target marketing and the confusion of commerce with art caused some things to happen as a result that have taken us away from jazz and what jazz offers us.

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.

I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel, listening to it.

We no longer want to be a melting pot, because we don't understand what is already melted.

A beat is a moment in the life a groove.

The first time I ever played the trumpet in public, I played the Marine Hymn. I sounded terrible.

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