Jazz? has no boundaries.
Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.
It’s not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.
Jazz is about being in the moment.
The true artform is being a human being.
The value of music is not dazzling yourself and others with technique.
It is people’s hearts that move the age.
People love us when we play what we want to play but we’re starving.
The music field was the first to break down racial barriers, because in order to play together, you have to love the people you are playing with, and if you have any racial inhibitions, you wouldn’t be able to do that.
I’m fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with.
Some twenty years ago, during the course of a memorable evening at the Stravinskys’ home in Los Angeles, the venerable maestro turned to me and said in no uncertain terms: ‘My dear, you should conduct your own music. All composers should conduct their own music!
Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.
People will always need love, romance, a tender touch and really personal and deeply felt music.
You have to understand the styles and it’s good to study those that came before us.
My music is Jazz.
I don’t have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapy is in art.
Everything I’ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.
Miles Davis and John Coltrane were so cool, if alive today global warming wouldn’t be an issue.
You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it.
I don’t dig staying in one groove.
Spontaneously composed music is a counterpoint that has its own rules based on a natural order and intuitive logic.
I want people to walk away with the same joy, hope and love that I put into my music.
