THC: Is this what you mean when you talk about the craftsmanship of the music?

WM: That's laughable, man. That's my field. I'm not wrong about that, brother. Take my word for it.

Simon Rentner: There's a profuse number of white students studying jazz music in institutional settings now. There aren't many black students studying the music in that very formal sense. Do you think that matters?

WM: Education matters whether it's in a formal setting or not. The fact that the Afro-American is not in touch with pertinent cultural advances in Afro-American and American thought doesn't bode well. But if you look at the condition of the Afro-American community you can see it. There are a lot of things that are wrong that we need to correct, and that would be one of those things. As far as the white kids that are studying, that's always been the case. This has been 40 years now, it didn't just come up in the last 10 years. The question for a lot of kids who study jazz is a matter of content; not just that they are studying, but what are they studying? A lot of the information has been tainted, the kids are being taught things that are unfounded, untrue. It takes them farther away from their own identity, be they white or black.

SR: A lot of jazz people lean toward Post-Romantic Impressionists for classical inspiration. However, you always go farther back, always making a reference to Bach or Beethoven, where others cite Ravel or Debussy.