Jazz Music Is The Power Of Now.

He [benny Carter] Is All That Every Jazz Musician The World Over Wants To Be. He's Performed 20,000 Nights. How Many Shoes Have Been Shined? How Much Mascara Put On? Rouge? How Many Of Those Impossible Bowties Have Been Tied? How Many Love Songs Have Been Sung? How Many Dances Have Been Danced? How Many Have Passed To The Sound Of His Music? It's Been Said That A Man Should Not Be Forced To Live Up To His Art. Benny Carter Is One Of The Rare Instances When We Wonder Whether The Great Art That A Man Has Created Can Live Up To Him.

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.

In The Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra We Play Such A Diversity Of Music, With 10 Arrangers In The Band, We Don't Really Worry About Whether It's Contemporary Or Not.

We're Blues People. And Blues Never Lets Tragedy Have The Last Word.

I Feel Like A Lot Of The Fundamental Material, I've Assimilated. So Now The Question Is: Am I Going To Really Get Into My Spiritual Inheritance Of Music And Really Develop My Abilities?