MR: Not really. My first instrument was piano. All the instruments are equal. Everyone’s improvising. everyone’s well versed, regardless of what instrument you perform on. Drummers like Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey played piano also. If you excel on a certain instrument, that’s where you position yourself. Ellington, who’s a composer, he performed on drums as well. Dizzy played all the instruments.

THC: I’ve heard that you have a rather casual way of tuning your drums. How does this work?

MR: The drum set is a group of instruments of indeterminate pitch. So basically it has to do with the phrasing and shape of what you’re doing and the musicians you’re working with.

THC: Many stress the audience’s importance to a musical experience. What is the significance of the audience to you?

MR: The audience is important for many reasons. If you don’t have an audience, you can’t make a living. I’ll put it like this. The audience wouldn’t come to see any of the improvisational people, commonly called [laughs] “Jazz” musicians, if they weren’t communicating. It’s a world of sound that you make people understand. We all are instantly composing, and in order to do that, you have to be well-versed in all of the elements that create this world of organized sound.