The level of musicianship in New York is the highest in the world. It's tough to get into. You start gigging making 50 dollars a night, or playing fo….

For me, the difference between a musician reading an arrangement on a piece of paper, and them closing their eyes and listening to what's happening a….

I really pulled from that repertoire that Billie Holiday was singing, and the way she sang it. It's sort of this beautiful, not really midpoint, but ….

Once I had the band, Jason [Moran] and John [Patitucci] and Eric [Harland] - it's very exciting to have that trio of just world-class guys - I alread….

I'm listening to a lot of Drake, and a lot of Frank Sinatra just because it's his centennial also. I'm going to be doing some tributes to him this ye….

There used to be a club in new york called Bradley's - I've never been there, it closed in the 80's - but I used to study with Junior Mance, and he w….

I go by the "Miles Davis school of production and band-leading", where you pick the best musicians you can, you provide them with a minimum of direct….

The other songs [of Billie Holiday] - "Body and Soul" is like the standard - I also wanted some songs that I knew I would sound good on, as a produce….

Jason [Moran] and John [Patitucci] and Eric [Harland] knew it was a Billie Holiday tribute. I'm sure they assumed it was going to be like another sin….

I've sort of realized there's a definite pattern to my output at this point: there's an album that everybody sort of loves, that's a real balance bet….

When I sort of step in my jazz world, it's somewhere between instrumental jazz and vocal jazz..

Chico Hamilton told me, "The first take is important in jazz because that's where the real emotion is." That's your true response to what's happening….

I don't get writer's block. I don't try to write anything; when something comes, I write it. I just practice and when I get an idea I write it down..

I actually started the whole project some years ago with a live debut at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. The focus was mainly on my favorite period of….

[Billie Holiday] was keeping it super real, and you can feel that to this day. Everything that she sang, she believed in. So I had to pick songs that….

There's a more experimental album that follows that, which is like Black Magic and While You Were Sleeping. Then there's a return to jazz, For All We….

I'm pretty much always planning two albums ahead..

For me jazz is kind of an extension of hip-hop. Kind of the sad thing is that a lot of jazz people just listen to jazz, and a lot of hip-hop people j….

When I start working on a new album, I kind of stop listening to a lot of outside stuff just so I can kind of focus..

For better or for worse, I think my approach to jazz is very traditional, in one sense, but is [also] very out of fashion today. It's about the music….

I really like the complexity of jazz, the emotional depth; I feel like there's no other music that's really as satisfying as jazz..