I always told the people at Cal Arts that if they wanted me to do Jazz studies, first of all, there couldn't be a big band within 500 miles and that I could do what I wanted to do. And they said I could.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm a jazz musician, and I really wanted to not miss an opportunity to have the full connection to jazz.
So I went into jazz and performed in jazz clubs all over the country.
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.
You have to go out and learn jazz by playing.
Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for 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.
Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing.
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.
Jazz is a hard music, and you have to really work hard and also have fun performing; that's the most important thing.
I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences.