Jazz is not background music..

The ensemble playing is as clean as a whistle. The band plays in tune and with dynamics. Also, there is some fine arranging and orchestrating going o….

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it..

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate upon it in order to get the most of it. You must absorb most of it. The harmonies within the mus….

I've found in composing that being simple and profound—having in-depthness in your music—is the most difficult thing to do. Anybody can write a whole….

Basically my influences have been American influences. It's been blues, gospel, swing era music, bebop music, Broadway show music, classical music. I….

I may be prejudiced, but I believe that jazz music has the strongest healing potential, and it's not just because I play it and love it so much. I fe….

Good Lord's been kind to me, that's all I can say. I wake up in the morning with music in my head a lot of times. I won't say every morning, but I wa….

I will search for hidden talents that I didn't know I had and do my best to cultivate them. I am grateful for each day, and I will try to use each da….

We all have to open our minds, stretch forth, take chances and venture out musically to try and arrive at something new and different..

They didn't dictate to me as to what kind of music that they wanted me to play or what tunes, what musicians that I was going to use. They let me do ….

Musical composition should bring happiness and joy to people and make them forget their troubles..