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Growing up, I was very much interested in jazz music.

Man, I just feel so fortunate to be a jazz musician at all. I have a hard time thinking of it any other way. It's such a fulfilling vocation. I love it.

I've been around jazz and jazz musicians most of my life.

Jazz was more of a tool for me to use to enhance my musicality.

Jazz is a constant theme in my life. My father is a jazz pianist, and from an early age I have been surrounded by it.

Jazz has always been a melting pot of influences and I plan to incorporate them all.

Jazz is a way of life, and you have to learn about it on the street, so to speak. But the training comes in by giving you the tools to work with.

I don't think I've ever been true to jazz. There's always a kind of jazz element to what I do. There are a very few genres that I haven't tried out, really, in what I've been doing. As a jazz musician, you can kind of mess about with things with a certain level of musicianship, which helps.

I wanted to play some more grown-up music - jazz.

Jazz is very much a part of my life. I work with the Thelonious Monk Institute and do the artwork for their program every year.