Not one ounce of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me..

I'm just a musician and a record producer..

I look back and say, "This must have been somebody else." I am not going to tell you that when I was 4, I dreamed about all of this..

We got into all the trouble you could ever imagine. We figured that if the Jones boys and all the gangsters ran Chicago, we had our own territory now….

It's easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I r….

A song should have all the color and beauty of every rose..

We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I n….

When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had….

The process is the most beautiful part..

I learned real early why God gave us two ears and one mouth, because you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk..

Count Basie practically adopted me at 13. We became closer and closer and I ended up conducting for him and Sinatra..

My grandmother had this high-tech security system - a rusty nail she used to lock the door..

A lot of the guys were like that - Oscar Pettiford - they just took me under their wing, and that's why I automatically help young people. I just lov….

Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or no….

Billy Strayhorn wrote Multicolored Blue. Billy to me is the boss of the arrangers..

I'm a tremendous believer and supporter in hip-hop and rap..

You Make Your Mistakes To Learn How To Get To The Good Stuff.

Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release..

All the jazz guys had interracial relationships, and even the ladies did. Over the years, interracial relationships have been a hip, almost defiant t….

Everybody has their idiosyncrasies..

I was the most subtle person in the world..