It's been years and years and years I've been playing the drums, and they're still a challenge. I still enjoy using drumsticks and a snare drum.
I really worked with icons in the music business, which really had a strong effect on me. It wasn't just pick-up gigs.
You learn at a certain point that you have to focus on the business side of music. After getting ripped off a couple of times, you figure out that you need to get a grip on it.
John was great to work with, and a lot of fun. I wish I'd had the chance to make more music with him, of course, and to get to know him better.
I'm not like my siblings, who are musical but can turn their hands to other professions! I'd always wanted to be involved in music - I'm a great believer in doing things that fulfil you.
The simple things in life ground me and keep me focused so I'm able to do a good job with what is in front of me.
I got into the habit of filtering out all the good in my life, focusing on only the negative. I'm not sure why I did it, but it's a pretty depressing state.
I've been able to do pretty well. I don't work as many consecutive nights as I used to, but I'm still working over 100 nights a year, so that's good for me.
For me, if the music is good, whether the artist is famous or unknown, I love being part of the music and contributing what I can to the bass end.
When I was 12 and started to take singing lessons from a woman, she told me that I would probably spend the rest of my life taking care of my voice.
I wish I could sing. I love singers, but I am way too shy. Scares the hell out of me.
Jazz has always been a melting pot of influences and I plan to incorporate them all.
But I just think we've got such a continuity with what we're doing that most people come in and fill in the blanks. And sometimes we leave a lot of blanks to be filled.
I look at the artistic process as like experiencing the world, channeling it through your personality and sending it back out there. That's the process.
My drummer, Gene Lake, is Oliver Lake's son. So I certainly have wide tastes, in not only what I listen to, but what I play as well.
I think that, given a real choice, people would like to hear something interesting, not something bland and right down the middle.
Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a tradition, but he didn't consider himself part of a tradition.
My favorite singer to this day is Nat King Cole. I've tried to emulate his phrasing. It is so absolutely beautiful to listen to his lovely voice.
There's a difference between the blues of the New Orleans guys and anyone else and the difference is in a chord, but I can't figure the name of it. It's a different chord, and they all make it.
My concerns have been about myself and not about giving something back and putting something in, even though that's been in the back of my head.
Here in Seattle, I'm the most productive I've ever been. I don't allow myself personal distractions. I'm extremely disciplined here.
