I travel up and down the country and I've been all around the middle of America for many years. Middle America is not one big mass of people with a proverbial beer in its hand, keeping the country down. That is not my experience of it and I don't labor under that misconception. And we have a long tradition of coming together through music in our country.

I always like to play very contemporary concepts of swing right next to New Orleans music because it highlights continuum.

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

People have taken time out of their day and spent their money to come sit down at a concert. And it's jazz music-it's not easy for them to get to it. I don't want them ever to feel that I'm taking their presence lightly.

I had to figure out how to survive in New York, and most of my time was occupied in getting an apartment and getting money. A lot of older jazz guys looked out for me and found me gigs and places to stay.

I got my first trumpet when I was six years old, from Al Hirt. My father was playing in Al Hirt's band at that time.

There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't improvising.