I miss playing with Miles. I did play with him a little while before he left the planet, but even at that time I longed to maybe do some things together.
I think as long as people are around and can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz.
I think what we need is a more welcoming mode from the people who put on a hundred million country-western shows on television. How about a monthly jazz show?
Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing.
I think as long as people are around and can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz.
I have always been a person who is concerned with the dignity of jazz music and the way jazz musicians have been treated and are treated, and the fact that the music has not been given the kind of due that it deserves.
But if I didn't have to make money, I would still play my horn.
There have been many great musicians that, Clifford Brown is one great example, I mean he died very early, 25.
I think we are in the midst of this period where we are committing this suicide on the planet and everybody is just using up all of our natural resources like a bunch of insane people. That's what I worry about more than I worry about jazz.
I am a person who thinks about the music first in trying to achieve something musically valid.