Ethics Are More Important Than Laws.

Nothing Else Will Ever Capture The Democratic Process In Sound As Perfectly As Jazz.

When I Did The Abyssinian Mass, I Went Through The Whole History Of The Church Music And The Gospel Music, Even With The Anglo American Hymns, The Afro American Hymns, The Spirituals And How It Developed, Up To Thomas Dorsey And The Dixie Hummingbirds, Going Through The History Of The Music, Jazz Musicians.

I Had To Figure Out How To Survive In New York, And Most Of My Time Was Occupied In Getting An Apartment And Getting Money. A Lot Of Older Jazz Guys Looked Out For Me And Found Me Gigs And Places To Stay.

And That's The Soulful Thing About Playing: You Offer Something To Somebody. You Don't Know If They'll Like It, But You Offer It.

The Blues Is Always There. It's Going To Be Hard Out Here, But It's All Right. It's All Right, And That's What The Blues Teaches You. You Got To Roll With The Punches And Find Your Equilibrium.