When you play a sax, that saxophone is irreverent. It's noisy; it's a trickster... you cannot hide the saxophone in your hands, so it's a good teacher.
I like to explore the full gamut of possibilities ... as many possibilities as possible. With David's saxophone in the mix we have a full palette to work from. With the four of us together on stage, watch out.
I don't know why, but I like the saxophone.
I wanted an electric train for Christmas but I got the saxophone instead.
I wanted to play saxophone, but all I could get were a few squeaks.
And you know, Doc Cheatham could play saxophone too. A lot of people don't know about that. There's also someone down at the University of Miami who made a big-band recording in which he played all the parts, except for the drums.
We have to have a melody line. So if one of our sax players needs to stick with one part, maybe the trombone player will grab the melody from another score.
My first album didn't come out until I was 27, which in pop years is late, you know. But when it came time to arrange it, I became a kid in a toy shop. I had a harp and a saxophone quartet and a symphony orchestra. I went berserk for a time.
Any saxophone player will have those influences come through in their music in a very different way. I can listen to the same 10 sax players as someone else for my entire life, and we'll both play completely differently. That's the beauty of being a musician.
I played saxophone, so I was into jazz. I learned from each audience and each teacher that I had. I can't really tell you any rules or anything, but the way I develop my beliefs is really just by personally learning from different situations.