"My mission is to open up people's ears to the players and styles they've never heard, and hopefully they think, 'Wow—I really need to check that out.' My goal has always been to prepare people to be able to play anything, anytime, anywhere. In order to survive in this business, you need to know a ton of tunes in a lot of styles and be able to play them all convincingly."

"I think that the biggest inspiration I can be to the students is to be an active, performing, recording artist. They want to know that you're out there, making your own music, being your own musician. My professional background contributes enormously to my teaching because I have such a wide range of experience playing so many styles of gigs—from lowdown, disgusting dives in the middle of Alabama to great jazz festivals in Sweden and all points in between. I'm also in the studio, recording CDs as a side man and as a leader. All of those things factor into giving them some understanding of what's required of them in the real world."

"When I was a first-semester student going to all those different classes, I was studying hard and getting As on tests, but I wasn't sure why I was learning a lot of what I was learning. In my second and third semester, all of a sudden things started to click. So when I'm working with my students, I've learned to anticipate when they're wondering, 'Why are you making me do this?' and try to connect the dots for them."

"I'm trying to instill professionalism in my students. That means doing their homework ahead of time on whatever situation they find themselves in, and then being as well prepared as possible. Don't give your word unless you intend to keep it. Show up on time. You need to maximize whatever it is that gives you the edge. Playing well is not enough; there are a lot of good players out there. What gives you the edge? Professionalism. A pleasant personality. Intelligence. Maximize it all. Being able to play is the icing on the cake, it's not the cake. The cake is all the other stuff."