When the great jazz and blues clubs closed - joints where the cash register rang loudly and there wasn't ESPN on TV over the bandstand, and people smoked cigarettes and drank whiskey and hollered 'Play on!' - When those places closed, I was pretty much done.

The starting point of all great jazz has got to be format, a language that you can work within that, in some ways, is much tighter than the blues or even gospel. It's all working towards the same destination - the difference being that Miles Davis flew there, and I'm still taking the subway.

He smelled of cigarettes and whiskey, the smell of Cambridge and youth.

All four of them want it pretty badly. It's the last great site on the Strip and there's never going to be another chance like this.

People don't realize you're blowing over changes, time changes, harmony, different keys. I mark a point in my solo where it's got to peak at point D I go to A, B, C D then I'm home.

You have to give him pretty high marks on how he manages the business. They've done pretty good in the marketplace, taking share every year.