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People want to have access to jazz because it has a vibe that's very strong.

The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities.

Jazz needs the help. It's the more sophisticated music. All the other music is on the TV, but jazz isn't.

For me, jazz offers so much freedom in the way the music can be interpreted. It's natural to me. It's where I feel most free.

It's not easy to play in a framework that requires simplicity and to tastefully find ways to interject the kind of freedom that we have in playing jazz.

The public, hearing pop music, is, without knowing it, also soaking up jazz.

I think that's what I love about jazz is that you can do what you want, and you're allowed to mess up.

Jazz music is America's past and its potential, summed up and sanctified and accessible to anybody who learns to listen to, feel, and understand it. The music can connect us to our earlier selves and to our better selves-to-come. It can remind us of where we fit on the time line of human achievement, an ultimate value of art.

Jazz really does try to include everything. It's always been popular music. But the wonderful thing about jazz is its willingness to take chances.

I feel like certain people think that certain styles of music will taint their jazz style.