The majors, they have to control the distribution, the record outlets, the radio and, in some cases, even the venues. And downloading and pirating have also put pressure on the majors.
When I was recording from '70 to '82, I always played piano and laid the tracks down. But I used to talk to the other musicians while the track was playing.
I think what's very French is the mixture of comedy with intimacy and a kind of reflectiveness. For U.S. audiences, the nearest thing is Woody Allen.
If you really dissect hip-hop you will find a whole lot of Charles Mingus, Ron Carter, Ahmad Jamal, a lot of classic jazz samples in there.
The fountain of youth with the youthful young musician is one meaning, and the fountain of youth with the youthful energy of the leader is another meaning.
I don't really say much about reviewers. It's a very tough job to get all of the depth of a movie all at once.
My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.
The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument that is outside of your body.
My heroes - people like Woody Allen - were stand-up comedians. Therefore, I always felt I should give it a go.
Through the years I've found that I prefer live playing to recording. I still do lots of recording - but I treasure the live shows.
I can pay my rent now. I guess I could always do that, but now I can get an apartment with heat.
I consider myself a serious musician. Doing a comedy show does not take away from that in any way.
I like pastels and lighter shades on darker skins. I feel like it lifts everything and accentuates being chocolate.
I do some concerts. At the moment, I'm being helped a lot by a gig I play in London, which is Pizza Express.
My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden.
There's a few tunes of mine that don't have jokes, but most of them have a joke and they have a humorous point of view somewhere.
Brand-new research suggests that the faster you take weight off, the longer you keep it off. Now that's a reason for dieters everywhere to rejoice.
When we created 'Goodness Gracious Me,' it was quoting 'Python' and Woody Allen lines that really bonded the writers, and the 'Spamalot' material is so utterly, wonderfully surreal that it hasn't dated.
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 did extensive, extensive recordings and made a classical CD-ROM set, which is still on the market. For ten years, it was by itself as the cream of the crop of samples.
Aristotle wrote the 'Poetics' 2,400 years ago. It's really an instruction manual for aspiring filmmakers. It's as valid today as it was then.
