I think life is really hard sometimes. It's not easy to wake up every day and go through what you go through. But the beautiful moments that you shar….

If you strive to become a good human being with the qualities of generosity, humility and having reverence for life...just maybe you'll become a grea….

I just try to play music from my heart and bring as much beauty as I can to as many people as I can. Just give them other alternatives, especially pe….

It used to be that creative music was most of the music that you heard back in the '30s and '40s, and now it's like 3 percent. So, its kind of a stru….

The whole underlying theme for the new music... is to communicate honest, human values, and in doing that to try to improve the quality of life..

I've got a collection of songs that I've had, I keep adding to and they're all great American composers. I wanted to showcase American composers and ….

I learned at a very young age that music teaches you about life. When you're in the midst of improvisation, there is no yesterday and no tomorrow — t….

As long as there are musicians who have a passion for spontaneity, for creating something thats never been before, the art form of jazz will flourish..

The artist is very lucky, because in an art form that's spontaneous like jazz, that's when you really see your true self. And that's why, when I put ….

I told my students the other day in class, which is about the spirituality and creativity as much as it is about music. I said, 'If you're walking do….

I just sit down at the piano and rattle it off..

Creative Arts raise a person to another level of consciousness as if you could imagine life before words..

In the midst of creating, a person is raised to another level of consciousness..

In the midst of creating, a person is raised to another level of consciousness that doesn't have that much to do with everyday thinking. It's as if y….

The bass, no matter what kind of music you're playing, it just enhances the sound and makes everything sound more beautiful and full. When the bass s….

You have to see your unimportance before you can see your importance and your significance to the world..

Before music there was silence and the duet format allows you to build from the silence in a very special way..

I always told the people at Cal Arts that if they wanted me to do Jazz studies, first of all, there couldn't be a big band within 500 miles and that ….

I want them to come away with discovering the music inside them..

I think it’s very important to live in the present. One of the great things that improvising teaches you is the magic of the moment that you’re in … ….

I just see myself as a human being that's concerned about life..