The lion's share of what I hear right now are people who, intentional or accidental, have avoided all jazz prior to 1960. And all the musicians who were successful in the '60s spent their entire lives, prior to 1960, listening to all the musicians these people avoid.

The piano is the X factor. People have a tough time following the structures when there's no piano there, spelling it out. It makes it more easily understood, particularly to people who don't know as much about music.

The whole point is, give me a break with the standards. You go to the average jazz label and suggest a record and they want to know which standards you're going to play. I'm saying let's break the formula.

There's a certain kind of motion and pacing that our music has, and this just doesn't have that. We just kind of rushed to the conclusion of most of the songs. I just would've preferred to done them over.

We played it as long as we could play it on that CD and I think it might be 50 minutes, maybe. What you have to do is play a couple of songs and then get off the stage because everything that trails it sounds stupid.

What is jazz? It, It's almost like asking, What is French? Jazz is a musical language. It's a musical dialect that actually embodies the spirit of America.

Humans are imperfect. That's one of the reasons that classical and jazz are in trouble. We're on the quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

If you listen to a lot of the songs that are popular now, there's very little melody in there. People love the beat. But to musicians, it's melody, because we understand how elusive it is and how hard it is to hold.

A lot of musicians have a tough time hearing what we're doing in a trio format.

I gave up my base in popular culture when I left the Tonight Show.

I like to make records sound good. I'm more like a reducer than a producer. If an artist cannot produce themselves, what's the point?

I think that if you keep banging at the door all you need is a little foothold, a little tiny foothold, and then the rest will take care of itself.

I think that one of the problems that jazz has is that it's so incestuous that it's starting to kill itself.

I'm not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.

If I were like a lot of other people, then it wouldn't be fun; but since I'm like me, it's okay.

If it's not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what's the point of playing Terrapin Station?

It's hard to get into Newsweek because, as more of our former intellectual magazines take on a pop focus, if there's no buzz, there's no interest.

It's something that jazz has gotten away from, and it's unfortunate. Players aren't physical anymore.

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

Pop doesn't really look back. It can't. What makes pop work is simplicity.