Andy McGhee, Professor Emeritus

"When I think of a great saxophone player, I think of John Coltrane. The difference between a great player like Coltrane and a good player is that a good player could be melodically good but not technically good—and vice versa."

"I think that a person with any potential should do a lot of playing before they teach, especially if they're young. Because if you have any talent, you have to get that inner feeling of playing out of your system. You can't be teaching and sit there and look out the window while you have a student there and say, 'Gee, I could be playing right now but I have to do this instead.'"

"The first thing I recognize in a student with potential is that they have good time. And equal to that, as far as value goes, is they have good ears. You also know that they've done a lot of listening to other great players. And for a young player, creativity. That's just about it."

"I can develop a student's ear, but I can't do anything with him if he doesn't know where his 1 is at. If you're playing jazz, the feel of jazz is 2 and 4. So you've gotta know where 1 is at when you're playing phrases. You ever see someone dancing, and the music is going one way and they're going another way? Well, that's the same thing."

"I teach my students that if you accept a job, regardless of what kind of job it is, you must play your best. Working with Lionel Hampton, I remember one incident in the Metropole—we had about 10 people, and Lionel was playing like he was playing for 10,000. And, being young, I thought, 'Why the hell is he working that hard?' But in the six years I was with him, I learned that once you hit the bandstand, you play as well as you can."