"My music has always had a loose improvisational structure, which I prefer. Through Ralph Gleason’s writings I learned to appreciate the loose structures that Duke Ellington would write for his soloists…a piece would be designed for how Johnny Hodges liked to solo for instance. I try to do this, even in a looser jam format. As a band, we’re developing a vocabulary between what I’ve written and each musician’s choice of how to play. In the space provided, a serendipity of the moment emerges. To find balance, improvisation has to have space to grow, to morph into something new."