Originally, we had a band known as Steely Dan. As we moved away from the band, we got whoever was appropriate for specific tunes. In a lot of cases, we gravitated toward jazz players who had more sophisticated harmonic concepts.
The enthusiasm, the adulation for us as jazz artists, in Kiev and Odessa was really heartwarming.
Herb Wong was an incredible man. We met when I was performing with Clark Terry at the Wichita Jazz Festival around 1974.
I love opera. I love jazz, especially Mingus. This makes me sound highbrow. I'm not.
I think of jazz as being homage through innovation. Don't quote that as a definition, but it comes pretty close.
The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point.
I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up things that were completely alien to my life.
Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.
It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.
I gravitate to rhythmic music, so I listen to jazz, world music, Indian music, Hawaiian music, all kinds.
Jazz and Cuba are inexorably tied together; it's not a branch from a tree. Latin music is part of the root of jazz.
I usually listen to surf music, not much instrumental music, and when I was younger I listened to jazz.
Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance.
A lot of times, we look at jazz in eras. How can we not keep those eras separate and think of the language as one complete continuum? It's all interrelated, and it's all evolutionary.
The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician.
I've got wide tastes, but I don't like jazz.
And I played in jazz band as well during all three years in school.
It was liberating to do comedy. It felt like playing in a jazz band.
I got my first set of drums when I was around 3. I went from band to marching band to Latin jazz band - it's like riding a bike.
In college, I was able to be the vocalist for the jazz band at Arkansas State.
