My Mother Told Me I Was Blessed,

Music, Of Course, Is What I Hear And Something That I More Or Less Live By. It's Not An Occupation Or Profession, It's A Compulsion.

The Problem Of Expressing The Contributions That Benny Carter Has Made To Popular Music Is So Tremendous It Completely Fazes Me, So Extraordinary A Musician Is He.

If Anybody Was Mr. Jazz It Was Louis Armstrong. He Was The Epitome Of Jazz And Always Will Be. He Is What I Call An American Standard, An American Original.

In Music, As You Develop A Theme Or Musical Idea, There Are Many Points At Which Directions Must Be Decided, And At Any Time I Was In The Throes Of Debate With Myself, Harmonically Or Melodically, I Would Turn To Billy Strayhorn. We Would Talk, And Then The Whole World Would Come Into Focus. The Steady Hand Of His Good Judgment Pointed To The Clear Way That Was Fitting For Us. He Was Not, As He Was Often Referred To By Many, My Alter Ego. Billy Strayhorn Was My Right Arm, My Left Arm, All The Eyes In The Back Of My Head, My Brainwaves In His Head, And His In Mine.

Fate Is Being Kind To Me. Fate Doesn't Want Me To Be Too Famous Too Young.