Quote

I grew up in Washington, D.C. But also loving the theater.

I come from a town of great musicians: Washington, D.C. It's no joke, that history.

Columbia was a wonderful label for me. Wonderful. The records I made there garnered me an audience. I won a number of polls during the years that I was at Columbia. The Downbeat Jazz Poll. Leonard Feather, who was a huge critic back in the day, different polls that he had. The Playboy poll, a number of polls. So the music was great.

I like to record records in Los Angeles. It's less distracting than New York, where I was based.

D.C. is where I started. That's home for me. I always love coming back to the area. They treat me so well, and people show up. They're excited and claim me as their own. I love it.

The commercial broadcasters have tremendous influence in Washington, D.C., for a couple of reasons. First, they're extremely rich and they have lots of money and they have had for a long time, so they can give money to politicians, which gets their attention.

I grew up in D.C.

I belong to the Richmond Concert Society, who put on very good concerts.

I did a lot of theater in the South side of Chicago.

I got a publishing deal with BMG, they were supportive, and some money to record demos.