And that's the soulful thing about playing: you offer something to somebody. You don't know if they'll like it, but you offer it.

If you didn't have the amalgam of Blacks and African-type sensibility and European sensibility, you wouldn't have jazz. Even in the negative and in the positive ways - if there was no slavery and the abolition of slavery, there would be no jazz.

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

I dress up a certain way because I respect the music.

Jazz music is America's past and its potential, summed up and sanctified and accessible to anybody who learns to listen to, feel, and understand it. The music can connect us to our earlier selves and to our better selves-to-come. It can remind us of where we fit on the time line of human achievement, an ultimate value of art.

Some stances are just conducive to swinging. If I stand up straight for too long it's harder to swing. Plus my feet hurt.

I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.