Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.

Jazz, for me, is a closed circuit, like the term baroque in the world of classical music.

When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist.

Lately I've been listening to some classical music again, some jazz.