Billy Higgins

If somebody would come and they're not playing music, they would encounter certain people on another level.

It doesn't have anything to do with yesterday or tomorrow, it's all right now.

Music. It's all creativity right here, right now.

I think that people should learn about that. In most music, there's one way that you do something, and that's the only way. In jazz, it's a lot different.

Jazz needs the help. It's the more sophisticated music. All the other music is on the TV, but jazz isn't.

It brings people together. It brings the races together. It brings religions together.

The first thing is, jazz is one of the few things to let you know that there is a God and there is a creation.

It's something that - jazz is one of the few things that you can go and listen to, I don't care where you're from, what you are, what background you come from - there's something there for you.

The French - they like jazz, they've been on jazz a long time.

You know the drum was the first instrument besides the human voice.

I might have played a little bit more in Europe than I have in Japan.

The Japanese actually approach the music on a high level. It's always been on a high level.

The people in Japan know more about the history of jazz and the musicians than the people in the United States do.

The United States is a beautiful place, you know?

There's so much beautiful music in the world, and the kids are getting robbed.

Because the stuff that they feed kids now, they'll have a bunch of idiots in the next millennium as far as art and culture is concerned.

If I couldn't do it, then I'd be defeated. I've got the tools to do it. I never did question my tools.

I enjoy seeing young people being interested in what they can do.