It was a situation that offered something to each of us, in terms of our own desires just to get better on our instruments, or to learn more about music. And I think we all found room to do that in this group.

Being authentic can be a good thing in that often people who are fixated on that are also fixated on having very high standards, so they may maintain something they think has tremendous value. On the other hand, most of the kinds of music that I've been excited about are hybrid in their origins.

I can tell you I'm not exactly sure why I teach. I think a lot of it is just it's the sense of community. A real desire to be involved both with people older than myself and people younger.

I like writing for individuals with really rich musical personalities.

I try to just be the person I am, with a lot of sensitivity to the genre in which I'm playing.

When I was younger, I had a much better connection between words and music. Somewhere along the way, I had kind of an aspiration to disconnect them, to just kind of go into a totally musical world.