If there was no black man there would be no Rock'n'Roll. The beat, the rhythms of Africa are what created Rock'n'Roll and Jazz.

To most jazz critics I was basically Kenny G.

I was blessed to work with The Jazz Messengers when the two piano players were Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea.

In 1994, I started touring again and I recorded two albums for Chesky Jazz.

Not with the Rochester Philharmonic, but I formed my own orchestra, made up of musicians from the Eastman School, where I'm on the faculty now, direct the Jazz Ensemble and teach improvisation classes.

My brother had a big band in high school; after that we continued to play together, eventually forming a group called the Jazz Brothers, that recorded for Riverside Records.

Well, I had started a program which is even longer running than this one in 1967 which was a jazz program called The Best of Jazz and that still goes out on Monday nights. That's been going for 33 years or something.

The only things that the United States has given to the world are skyscrapers, jazz, and cocktails. That is all. And in Cuba, in our America, they make much better cocktails.

New York is the dream world, the center of jazz and rock.

I listen to jazz about three hours a day. I love Louis Armstrong.

My music is jazz.

Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a tradition, but he didn't consider himself part of a tradition.

I fell in love with jazz when I was 12 years old from listening to Duke Ellington and hearing a lot of jazz in New York on the radio.

I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz.

I still love the whole history of jazz. The old things sound better than ever.