Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker seemed so sophisticated and bad. I wanted to be like that.
When Ronald Reagan was elected I was on a bus traveling with a band in France. I wrote a little arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner in a minor key.
When you have 13 horns, and one is soloing, you have 12 people to play the richest, fullest chord you could ever imagine behind that solo.
I still prefer the bebop of the '40s. The very stuff I started out with is still the best to me. I have come full circle.
