Detroit was a university without walls

"I had a rich environment, it was like a university without walls, I have to say that and we all looked and there are guys you don’t even know about who were there that we played with and were helping each other and teaching us. It was just a great exchange. It was all about the music and reaching for that level of being really good. So we had a lot of discussions about material, about songs, and I think we developed some pretty sophisticated taste, in terms of what’s good and what isn’t and how to discern the good from the mediocre. And all of that is learning, especially when you’re a teenager is invaluable. So like I say, it was like a university. So when we got to New York we really felt like we were prepared." - Kenny Burrell, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History