To be here drinking a Coke can influence the process of musical creation as much as anything.

In our eyes, heroes, gods, masters do not exist. We love and respect every musician, whether from the past, the future, or... someone who doesn't yet exist... just as much as birdsong interests us.

Well, actually, I don’t consider myself a jazz legend or anything.

People doing the kind of sound research that I’m interested in still have a difficult time.

I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve been forced to move from zone to zone.

The Vision Festival was packed every night, always has been for the four years it’s been happening.

It took me a long time to reach the decision to retire, actually, from the Art Ensemble.

So okay, I accepted, and I realized while working for that concert that I’d been missing something very important and vital to me, and that something was music.

I’ve been informed by both sides, jazz, western music, Asian music, African music, all sides, because I’ve been interested in the sound of the universe, and that sound is without limit.

In fact, since no one’s been interested in my work, I took the responsibility recently to invest in my own work, so I’m producing a concert that was done at the Vision Festival in May.