I can count on one hand the number of instrumental hits there have been over the last ten years.

1972 was a year of many pleasant and rewarding experiences for me:

I find it very difficult to compose when I’m not playing.

Not compromising the music, but there is a way, by just showing the people that you’re sincere and honest with what you’re doing, and by talking to them.

Not with the Rochester Philharmonic, but I formed my own orchestra, made up of musicians from the Eastman School, where I’m on the faculty now, direct the Jazz Ensemble and teach improvisation classes.

There’s not much in the way of written-down arrangements – just things that Gerry and I have worked out, from playing spontaneously together and hanging on to whatever seems to fall in right.

I don’t believe music can be free unless it has something to be free from.

1972 was a year of many pleasant and rewarding experiences for me.

With four people you can create one very strong kind of energy, but if you can get 65 people working together, and swinging together, that’s a whole other kind of energy.

Whether it’s string writing or whatever, I try to write for what each instrumentalist can do best.