Jazz is like a telescope, and a lot of other music is like a microscope.
People have been starving for intellectual fodder, but the best way to get people to close their eyes and not say anything is to tell them that they're not smart enough to comprehend.
If you asked people, "Do you like jazz?" they would be like, "not at all." But I think that if you're really putting yourself out there and really communicating, music can put you beyond people's preconceptions, beyond their playlist.
I've had experiences where people say, 'I hated jazz before I heard you guys!' I'm like, 'You didn't hate jazz before you heard us, you hated the idea of jazz.'
I used to play until 4 o'clock in the morning.My dad would go nuts - he'd scream and say the cops are gonna come and break our instruments.
This notion that I was somehow special and deserving of a more involved education was wrong.I was smart at taking tests, but I knew how smart some of my friends were; they were just smart in different ways.
