When I Was First Aware That I

Jazz Is About Freedom Within Discipline.

I Started Growing Up In A Hurry And Taking A Lot Of The Philosophy I'd Heard From Church As A Kid A Lot More Seriously - Especially The Ten Commandments - And Wondering How 'thou Shalt Not Kill' Could Be So Absolutely Ignored. It Took Me Until I Was In My 40s To Write What I Was Thinking As A Young Soldier.

Do You Think Duke Ellington Didn't Listen To Debussy? Louis Armstrong Loved Opera, Did You Know That? Name Me A Jazz Pianist Who Wasn't Influenced By European Music!

I Have More Energy At The End Than I Do At The Beginning. You Can Be So Beat Up That You Can Scarcely Walk On Stage But When You Get To The Piano The Excitement Kicks In, You Forget About Being Tired.

Don't Be A Perfectionist... Leave That To The Classical Musicians.