And I just practiced on it and practiced on it. I found a lot of little things about details, about accents and how much of an accent to make.

I've always been interested in science. I used to take watches apart and clocks apart, and there's little screws, and a little this and that, and I found out if I dropped one of them, that thing ain't gonna work.

Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept. He and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were.

I'm aiming that towards people, towards humanity, not even just musicians. Because this is about life, not about musicians.

He just blew me away and what it taught me was that Miles didn't hear it as a mistake.

The strongest thing that any human being has going is their own integrity and their own heart. As soon as you start veering away from that, the solidity that you need in order to be able to stand up for what you believe in and deliver what's really inside, it's just not going to be there.