I use a lot of double-tonguing [using the tongue to control airflow]; that allows me to play as fast as if I was slurring, but with clean articulatio…

- Paul Smoker

When I was in high school I made the discovery that if I was playing in a jazz club, and there were black people in the club, if I could get the blac…

- Paul Smoker

There was a time, in my early 20s, when I picked up the trumpet and said, 'I've got to change what I'm doing.' I wasn't putting enough air through th…

- Paul Smoker

I don't know if the music moves forward anymore. I haven't heard anything for years - except refinement - coming out of the jazz world.

- Paul Smoker

I go down to New York, do the project, and leave. I have no interest in participating in the rat race down there. Hip jazz fans know who I am. There'…

- Paul Smoker

I don't really have a career as a jazz musician. I don't really have a career as a classical musician. I don't really have a career as a college prof…

- Paul Smoker

Once I leave the studio I'm ready to do the next thing. There are records I made that I haven't heard.

- Paul Smoker