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.
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.
Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker seemed so sophisticated and bad. I wanted to be like that.
