Those Who Play For Applause....tha T’s All

Don't Bullshit' Just Play.

It's Harder To Build Than Destroy. To Build Is To Engage And Change. In Jazz, We Call Progressing Harmonies Changes. Changes Are Like Obstacles On A Speed Course. They Demand Your Attention And Require You To Be Present. They Are Coming...they Are Here..... And Then They Are Gone. It's How Life Comes. Each Moment Is A Procession From The Future Into The Past And The Sweet Spot Is Always The Present. Live In That Sweet Spot. Be Present.

My Father Was A Teacher, My Mama Was A Community Worker, I Taught In So Many Schools. So When You Get That Experience Of How To Communicate With Younger People, Put That Hand On Them And Give Them That Old-school Feeling, The Maturity And Adult, A Lot Of Our Kids Just Need The Feeling Of That Love, And That's The Frame Of Reference That I Teach From And That's The Frame Of Reference That All Of Our Musicians In The Jazz At Lincoln Center.

The Blues. It Runs Through All American Music. Somebody Bending The Note. The Other Is The Two-beat Groove. It's In New Orleans Music, It's In Jazz, It's In Country Music, It's In Gospel.

I Love Gustavo Dudamel And I Love What He Does For Classical Music, And I Love What He Comes Out Of, El Sistema And The Old Man Abreu. When We Were In Venezuela, I Had The Chance To Go To His Building. He Had, Like, Five Or Six Orchestras Playing Of Kids From The Hood Playing, Like, Mahler's Third Symphony And Shostakovich Fifth And Beethoven. Man, It's Unbelievable. I Mean, They Could Play.