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

The real power of Jazz is that a group of people can come together and create improvised art and negotiate their agendas... and that negotiation is the art

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

Music is always for the listener, but the first listener is always the musician

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.

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

If you looked around, you'd be glad you couldn't see.