Jazz is democracy in music.

The soul gives us resilience - an essential quality since we constantly have to rebound from hardship.

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

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

What is deeper than respect and love? That’s what we felt: veneration.

New Orleans had a great tradition of celebration. Opera, military marching bands, folk music, the blues, different types of church music, ragtime, echoes of traditional African drumming, and all of the dance styles that went with this music could be heard and seen throughout the city. When all of these kinds of music blended into one, jazz was born.

We're blues people. And blues never lets tragedy have the last word.