A lot of kids have parents who say, 'Music is hard; maybe you should come up with a Plan B.' Whenever I hear that kind of 'advice,' I think it's bad parenting. I was lucky to have a parent who assured me it was a possibility to pursue music.

When somebody uses a word as a genre distinction, all it really does is trigger certain experiences, or music, that somebody's been exposed to. But that's an individual thing; there's no sort of universal understanding of what jazz is.

I'm really open-minded, musically. The credo I ascribe to is, 'Take care of the music, and let the rest take care of itself.' Growing up, I was a sponge and soaked up everything I was exposed to.

Gerald Clayton Quotes