Quotes

[on putting together "The Big Phat Band" in 1999] I realized that I may have more road behind me than I have ahead of me, and maybe I should have the courage to start writing music for me. I was mindful of the hostile cultural climate for this type of music, the economic challenges and logistic challenges - the stuff that started to kill the big band environment the first time round. Could I convince people that this music wasn't just about nostalgia, or that it wasn't elitist? That you could make jazz accessible and even entertaining? I was fighting the concept, even in the jazz community, that to market your music meant that you didn't have artistic integrity.

To see my name on a list of Grammy nominees, right next to John Williams and people like that, I can't get used to it. And I don't want to get used to it. I never would have predicted I would have twenty Grammy nominations, ever.

I think I have one responsibility and that is to write music that sounds good to me, not to fans or critics. People can hear some intangible difference in music that has integrity from an honest point-of-view, and music that is just well-crafted.