The Art of Making Fire

Jazz is the legacy of the African-American community.

Jazz is a process

Words are like these little ecosystems.

Words...is not just language. This is part of being conscious, human, and whole.

Going to the dictionary for words is a little like getting nutrition advice from the FDA... Words come from the community, they come from experience, they come from emotion.

The instrument is you. Developing your own voice, developing your own sense of the world, interrogating what you experienced and what you think.

Miles Davis said that it takes a long time to learn how to play like yourself.

Learn to play with others and not just people who think like you.

Go where the music takes you.

Justice is a process, it's not necessarily an outcome...becoming sensitive of things we don't know about and we haven't experienced.

A lot of people look at jazz and they think it's just kind of unfettered randomness, when actually there's a process going on. Each one of these musicians is both a leader and a follower.

When you watch [Muhammed] Ali you learn more than just boxing...you learn about America.