"If my serenade of song and story should serve as a pillow for some composer's head, as yet perhaps unborn, to dream a…"

"I think America concedes that (true American music) has sprung from the negro. When we take these things that come fr…"

"Life is like a trumpet. If you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out."

"It's a street in Memphis that W.C. Handy wrote about in his "Beale Street Blues." You know, If Beale Street could tal…"

"Comin' in on a wing and a pray'r Comin' in on a wing and a pray'r Tho' there's one motor gone, We can still carry on,…"

"this country might have been a pio neer land once. but. there ain't no mo indians blowing custer's mind with a differ…"

"Being curious is an absolute rule of life. If you don’t have that, I don’t know what you're doing in this music."

"Even while I was studying at [Manhattan School of Music], I was learning about melody and rhythm, and theory, and har…"

"You must remember that it was a different time...It was before everyone was looking into their smartphones. There wer…"

"Very often the things that we consider to be new are not new. They're just new combinations or reanimations and reima…"