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

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.

Everything comes out in blues music: joy , pain , struggle . Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance.

This music heals people because music is vibration, and the proper vibration heals.

Many heroic things happened during slavery. And remember that there was a national movement away from it even at the time. The era of Reconstruction and then the subsequent dismantling of Reconstruction sent us in a tailspin. Then we had the Civil Rights movement. Now we have our first non-white president. We have a pattern of moving apart and then coming back together throughout the history of this country. Each time, we come closer.

The main three components are the blues, improvisation - which is some kind of element that people are trying to make it up - and swing, which means even though they're making up music, they're trying to make it up together. It feels great, like you're having a great conversation with somebody.

Jazz is not just 'Well, man, this is what I feel like playing.' It's a very structured thing that comes down from a tradition and requires a lot of thought and study.