Trumpet Players Are Just Belligerant, And Cocky,

I Didn't Have A Philosophical Understanding Of Music Until I Came To New York. I Didn't Understand How It Applied To My Kind And My Generation. I Thought It Was Just Old People Talking.

When You Study Our Greatest Artists, You Will Find That They Give Us A Key To Understand How To Deal With Each Other, And That Our Bloodlines Are Intertwined. It's Not Hyphenated America. That There Is An America, And It Is Expressed In Those Arts. It Gives Us A Key To Figure Out How To Negotiate With Each Other, And It Tells Us Actually Who We Are.

For Me As A Person Who's In The Arts And As Someone Who Understands The Magnitude Of Our Contributions And The Price That Was Paid To Contribute To That, That We Just Have Not Gotten That Together. I Will Do All That I Can To Get In Front Of Our Kids, To Try To Teach Them, But At A Certain Point The People Have To Want It And Come Towards It.

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.

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.