"I feel that new music is actually more linked to us than maybe a Mozart symphony. Music, art in general, somehow evolves with us in the way we experience the world."
"The one thing I do know is the rest of my days will be about the mission, the various missions. They're all connected. I can no longer just play because it's fun or take a gig because it pays well."
"I think there's something really valuable about building this space for Black musicians and also to inspire the next generation of of creatives to say, you can do something different, too."
"I want to try to find the spirituality behind Coltrane's playing. I want to copy the feeling that he had back at this time because that's what's truly sticks out."
"I am really interested in living in a way that helps other people be better. But I have to help myself be better. Composing is just the whole apparatus for that."
"I've experienced love. I've experienced loss. And I do have a subtext for every piece. But I always ask myself who is J'Nai in this?"
"I feel like my place in a business like this is to show you that what you look like as a person will never matter more than what it is you can create as an artist."
"I can't say that I'm an activist in any way. I'm hoping that through the work of being a musician there's something positive that I can bring to the conversation or people's experience."
"If this helps to open your eyes to what is more just, what is more equal, then that is one of the things to take away from this experience today."
"Sitting with the unknown brought up some new things I'm interested in and things that I'm not interested anymore in in a very clear way that it might have just taken a lot more time to find had we not had that experience."