Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn't play like Wynton.
I fear that I won't get better and that I won't have time to practice. To be called a "jazz musician" - it's a big responsibility.
Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a tradition, but he didn't consider himself part of a tradition.
I never studied jazz technically; I just know and love the music.
If you truly have expertise - and expertise can be say a chess master who has really mastered something or an artist or a musician of some sort you know if you give a jazz musician.
I can turn on some jazz guitarist, and he won't do a thing for me, if he's not playing electrically. But Jeff Beck's great to listen to.
We all listened to a lot of recorded music, especially American jazz, modern jazz, and that's where our studies were and our inspiration came from.
I'd rather call it "instrumental creative music," especially the music that I've been doing. If a person would hear that music, they would undoubtedly call it "jazz. " There is this whole generation of musicians that are playing and thinking critically for themselves and making music that's relevant to today. I hope that's the objective of a lot of musicians.
Every ‘mistake’ is an opportunity in jazz.
Yes, I have been studying piano since I was six. Classical, jazz, compositional, Broadway, everything. I just love it all.
The hippest thing you can do is not play at all. Just listen.
I think everybody has to kind of decide what the word 'jazz' means to them, and that's fine.
Jazz music is the power of now.
Who knows. . . we'll be playing Jazz and having a good time!
That's what it is-it's jazz. It's just jazz. That's what the whole thing is about to me. It's about what's happening right now in this context. This conversation is jazz to a certain extent. It's improvisation. What appeals to me about music is the improvization. That's what I don't like about the media-they're not living it.
There is nothing new. . . everything has roots in the past.
It's either hip or it ain't.
On the radio I listen to the easy-listening stations, the jazz stations.
I'm not supposed to be playing, the music is supposed to be playing me. I'm just supposed to be standing there with the horn, moving my fingers. The music is supposed to be coming through me; that's when it's really happening.
I'm always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.