Let The Critics Criticize And Let The

People Have Taken Time Out Of Their Day And Spent Their Money To Come Sit Down At A Concert. And It's Jazz Music-it's Not Easy For Them To Get To It. I Don't Want Them Ever To Feel That I'm Taking Their Presence Lightly.

I Always Read All These Books About The Slaves. My Mother Is Very Educated. My Father Would Talk To Us Like We Were Grown Men. We Never Knew What He Was Talking About Half The Time.

Milk In A Mother's Breast-that's Cool. Milk In A Mouth-that's Cool Too. But Milk In My Trumpet? Not So Cool. I Have To Play That Thing.

Even In These Times, There Are Still Neighbors That Will Turn Their Backs On Neighbors.

I Feel That For Years Of Teaching In The Country And Reading Criticism In Books, I Feel Like The Things Most Needed In Our Culture Are The Understanding Of The Meanings Of Our Music. We Haven't Done That Good Of Job Teaching Our Kids What Our Music Means Or How We Developed Our Taste In Music That Reminds Us And Teaches Us Who We Are.