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

I just got to hear every note. After I left Birdland, I started working at the Jazz Gallery. In the end, I still couldn't play, but I knew how to listen. I was probably the world's best listener.

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.

I write very slowly.

There are times when what's happening in rock is the best music in the world, and there are times when there is nothing worthwhile at all.