 I don't worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about jazz. |
| My older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in classical situations. He was already an amazing talent. |
| It's more about conception and touch and spirit and soul than whether my hardware was in place. |
| Listening is the key to everything good in music. |
| The first thing I learned was the theme from Peter Gunn. |
| From 1962 to 1965, the guitar became this icon of youth culture, thanks mostly to the Beatles. |
| I think I have a basic sound aesthetic that is in most of what I do. |
| The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities. |
| I hate the way chorus boxes sound. |
| I was able to work with the best musicians in Kansas City starting when I was really young. |
| I don't know if I would qualify as mainstream. I think I have managed to function pretty successfully on the fringes of the music world and have been able to play exactly what I have wanted the way I have wanted. |
| I saw A Hard Day's Night 12 or 13 times. |
| Whatever my recorded output is, it's a reflection of a general love of music. |
| Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that. |
| People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds. |
| I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is. |
| I was deep in the zone of practicing almost constantly. |
| I realized that equipment really had little to do with why I sound like the way I sound. |
