I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

I still prefer the bebop of the '40s. The very stuff I started out with is still the best to me. I have come full circle.

I write very slowly.

Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker seemed so sophisticated and bad. I wanted to be like that.

I don't enjoy traveling in America. I don't like the food, the cars. It is not exotic enough. It all tastes a bit like airline food.

Living composers writing for big band are very few and far between. There are not a lot of them, and I have a talent for doing it. I am zeroing in on what I do best.