When I first came to New York everybody on the scene would treat me like I could play but I couldn't.

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.

If you are serious about American culture and you are serious about Afro-American culture, you are in a lot of pain. You are not - you are not smiling about it.

Milk in a mother's breast-that's cool. Milk in a mouth-that's cool too. But milk in my trumpet? Not so cool. I have to play that thing.

Only a few act - the rest of us reap the benefits of their risk.

When I was 12, I began listening to John Coltrane and I developed a love for jazz, which I still have more and more each year.

Whenever you face a man who's playing your instrument, there's a competition.