We Looked Up To Our Father. He

I Believed In Studying Just Because I Knew Education Was A Privilege. It Was The Discipline Of Study, To Get Into The Habit Of Doing Something That You Don't Want To Do.

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.

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.

My Thing Is, Once You Start To Put A Backbeat On Your Music Or Something That Has A Machine In It, You Have Popularity, But You Lose The Flexibility. And You Lose A Richness.

This Is Our Bandstand. If You Don't Want To Play, Get Up Off The Instrument And Leave.