Jazz comes from our way of life, and because it's our national art form, it helps us to understand who we are.

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.

Blues is like the roux in a gumbo. People ask me if jazz always has the blues in it. I say, if it sounds good it does.

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.

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

The soul gives us resilience - an essential quality since we constantly have to rebound from hardship.

Those who play for applause....Tha t’s all they get.