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"I think the problem starts with the general appreciation of the music in the larger society."
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"My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music."

"88% of what we call good songs aren't really good. They merely remind us of a good time we once had."

"I am the daughter of the Chairman of the Board and thus, was raised with great music."
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"There was a period which I refer to as the 'Golden Age of Jazz,' which sort of encompasses the middle Thirties through the Sixties, we had a lot of great innovators, all creating things which will last the world for a long, long time."


"Jazz has an audience all around the globe and has had for many decades, I think speaking of the United States, let's say that what we need is more of an official recognition."


"I don't want to appear hostile, like I'm hostile to L.A. or that I feel that the people don't appreciate jazz. I don't think it's that. I think it's something more. It's something a little bit more complicated than that."


"Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing."


"I've played with all of the heavyweights in the modern jazz, progressive jazz movement. I've been fortunate enough to play with them, a who's who. All of those guys, I've been fortunate enough to have performed with."


"You had many jazz musicians who lived in the United States, who had a hard time being accepted over here and had to play in sort of these inferior type dives."


"There have been many great musicians that, Clifford Brown is one great example, I mean he died very early, 25."


"What I can say is that for may years jazz musicians had to go to Europe, for instance, to be respected and to be sort of treated not in a discriminatory way. I don't think there is anything controversial about me saying that. This is just a fact."


"I think we are in the midst of this period where we are committing this suicide on the planet and everybody is just using up all of our natural resources like a bunch of insane people. That's what I worry about more than I worry about jazz."


"I guess fortunate that I'm still around and I emphasize I guess because you never can tell what musicians would be playing had they been around as long as I have."
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