I think the purpose of a piece of music is significant when it actually lives in somebody else. A composer puts down a code, and a performer can activate the code in somebody else. Once it lives in somebody else, it can live in others as well.
It's easy for me to care about Toronto, because Toronto is a community that cares about itself. It represents the world. It talks to itself, and because it does, it figures out that there must be a music garden as part of its existence.
I really would like to be involved in things and to understand things, and in some ways you've got to be careful what you wish for because I feel very, very blessed to have such an interesting life and to be able to have little snapshots of lives of people from many different parts of the world.
The tango is really a combination of many cultures, though it eventually became the national music of Argentina.
There's a part of me that's always charging ahead. I'm the curious kid, always going to the edge.
Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also.
What came up at age 49 is I realized that of all the things I'm interested in, the thing I'm most interested in is figuring out what makes people tick, why people think the way they do, why they act the way they do. And I realized that music is such a great way to investigate why people do what they do.
I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.
You know, you can have someone who's the very best at something, but if there's not that kind of chemistry, collaborating is not going to amount to anything.
My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there's a place for culture.
I realized late in life that my twin passions are music and people.
People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.'
You go through phases. You have to reinvent reasons for playing, and one year's answer might not do for another.
I think anybody who goes away finds you appreciate home more when you return.
