I Dress Up A Certain Way Because

There's So Much Spirit Of Integration And Democracy In Jazz.

I Get So Much From Having The Opportunity To Interface With The Younger People And To Bring Information To Them And To Represent Our Culture And Our Way Of Life. The Feeling And The Warmth And The Love, It's Unbelievable. The Type Of Exchange That Goes On Between Students And Teachers Or Visiting People Who Are Doing Master Classes, And Not Just When They're Musicians. Even General Classes, When The Students Are Not Necessarily Musicians.

I Never Minded Giving My Opinions. They Are Just Opinions, And I Had Studied Music And I Had Strong Feelings. I Was Happy For My Opinions To Join All The Other Opinions. But You Have To Be Prepared For What Comes Back, Especially If You Don't Agree With The Dominant Mythology.

Everything Comes Out In Blues Music: Joy, Pain, Struggle. Blues Is Affirmation With Absolute Elegance. It's About A Man And A Woman. So The Pain And The Struggle In The Blues Is That Universal Pain That Comes From Having Your Heart Broken. Most Blues Songs Are Not About Social Statements.

Jazz Is Not Just 'well, Man, This Is What I Feel Like Playing.' It's A Very Structured Thing That Comes Down From A Tradition And Requires A Lot Of Thought And Study.