Do you think Duke Ellington didn't listen to Debussy? Louis Armstrong loved opera, did you know that? Name me a jazz pianist who wasn't influenced by European music!

My mother Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck was a pianist who studied with Dame Myra Hess and Tobias Matthey. As a child in California I used to listen to her play Chopin.

[? Dave Brubeck and Marian McPartland, two masters of the jazz piano, Friday.] It's always an event, when she's there, ... She's a wonderful pianist.

If I told you all the people that have secretly told me I've influenced them, you'd never believe it, and you'll never see it in print, either.

That's the beauty of music. You can take a theme from a Bach sacred chorale and improvise. It doesn't make any difference where the theme comes from; the treatment of it can be jazz.

The worst thing about the life of a jazz musician on the road is getting to the gig. Once you're there and playing, it's marvelous.