"The first jazz musician was a trumpeter, Buddy Bolden, and the last will be a trumpeter, the archangel Gabriel."

"Some stances are just conducive to swinging. If I stand up straight for too long it's harder to swing. Plus my feet h…"

"They take your drawers off for you, they show your ass, they sell bullshit, they call themselves 'niggaz' and the wom…"

"I had a trumpet, but I didn't want to be a trumpet player. I wanted to be some type of athlete or in some type of sch…"

"I think that virtuosity is the first sign of morality in a musician. It means you're serious enough to practice."

"That's democratic leadership. It's like a flock of geese. They make the calls from the back. ...If you really are lea…"

"The level of corruption we're seeing now... I'm a nonpartisan attacker of the corruption I see. I've been doing it fo…"

"[I]n jazz you can plug the base amp in, the drummer can play loud, one soloist can play 400 choruses, and the next on…"

"That's what I have to say as a band leader. I can't say, "Well, I'm going to solo on every tune. Every time somebody …"

"[W]e're in trouble right now, but... a doctor doesn't go into a place where a lot of people are sick and say, "Man, a…"