I was also sitting in from the middle of senior year of high school at Sweet Basil, it was a great club… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
Families that I lived with a little bit in junior high and quite a bit in high school and college. Just to… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
I finally got to junior high and I got to start saxophone. There were a few of us that were in the… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
There are great jazz educators that I meet all the time. I met a guy named Paul Luchessi who has a high… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
I didn't always have time to practice as much as I wanted to do, that was a real problem for me in… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
[Larry Laurenzano] gave me a junior high school saxophone to take to high school, because I was always taking one of our… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
I also met Charles McPherson around that time, end of high school. I was 17 and I had followed Phil around for… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
I think what frustrated me more than anything else in my formative years was that I just had to work. I had… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
By the latter part of high school, by the middle of junior year in high school, Jay Rodriguez played me some Irakere… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
Justin [Di Cioccio] was [at Laguardia School of Arts]. He later took over at Manhattan. But I knew Justin through the McDonald's… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
I had a lot of bad habits in how I was playing the horn. And I slowly, in high school and college,… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
I was finishing up at High School of Performing Arts and finally, by the end of junior year and start of senior… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
Joe Henderson, who I maybe, to me, if I had to pick one improviser in my life that I saw live that blew my… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
Benny Carter came up to me and said to me, "You know, in the whole history of the alto, I think Phil is the… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
“know that I’m not a human being having a spiritual experience. I’m a spiritual being having a human experience.” — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
It's very unlikely you're a genius, but, if you're ready to work at it hard and you want to listen to music all the… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
The first jazz cruise that I was on was '91. I played with Maria Schneider and John Fedchock's band. Got to meet some amazing… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
I just lucked into a lot of good people man. In my life and through friends, and in the music, that really embraced me… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
Every morning you have a choice. Are you going to be a positive thinker or a negative thinker? Positive thinking will energize you. — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
I was occasionally getting calls for some things. But I would say, 22 to 29 was a lot of scuffling. Hoping to get called… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
There are a lot of people that impacted me. I remember hearing Oscar Peterson live at the Blue Note, which was very expensive, but...… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
There's a lot of good people out here that want to help you grow and to help the music to continue to grow and… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image
Ernie Hayes, Jimmy Lewis, and either Belton Evans or Khalil Mahdi on drums [were in Sweet Basil]. All those guys really took care of… — Jon Gordon Copy Share Image