Talking about Jazz Education:
"Most of the schools I don't agree with in the first place. 'Cause they start talking about different things and I say what? They say you got to know all the modes? I say the modes? What the h** is that? I've been playing Jazz 70-something years and I had never heard of a mode. So I say something is off here. A mode? To play jazz? So, it's a lot of things - I don't believe in. I'm the oldest teacher. I'm the oldest teacher on this planet. 'Cause not only can I teach you, I can sit here and make you play licks, I can sit here and make you know things. I can sit here and sing things to you, and then I go to the piano and play 'em for you. See? See I'm not a piano teacher who can't play."
Talking about Bud Powell:
"I believe in Bird and Diz. They were the innovators. They were the brilliant ones. Bird and Diz and Bud Powell. There's not one piano player that can play like Bud Powell.. ..And see if you had asked Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, John Lewis, Hank Jones, Me. If you had asked us, who was the best pianist in the world. Some of us would say, well y'know we'd think Art Tatum. But you know most of us, the young ones like this, there's only one name you say, Bud Powell. So nobody, I don't care how they play. They gotta show me, 'cause I- it seemed like Bud Powell knew everything, I don't understand that... ..y'know and I wish that we appreciated him as much as we should. Because in him, I don't know how he learned so many things. He's the only one that you really can say, if you listen to him play you're going to learn something. He's going to play something that nobody else has played. He's fabulous, I tell you."