When me and my brother would go to see our daddy playing, there'd be 30 people in the audience. I was only 14 or 15, but I realised something was wrong.

As long as there is democracy, there will be people wanting to play jazz because nothing else will ever so perfectly capture the democratic process in sound. Jazz means working things out musically with other people. You have to listen to other musicians and play with them even if you don't agree with what they're playing. It teaches you the very opposite of racism and anti-Semitism. It teaches you that the world is big enough to accommodate us all.

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.

The first time I ever played the trumpet in public, I played the Marine Hymn. I sounded terrible.

Ethics are more important than laws.

Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12-bar form that's played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic vocabulary that's been used by rock n' roll. It's related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition.

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.