"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
