Matthew Shipp

People come from a certain generation and a certain whole way of looking at things, and you really do become a prisoner of your own world.

The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point.

His name, even, is part of the marketing scheme, I mean, Thelonious Sphere Monk - how can you think of a better name to fit his style of playing?

I like people not being able to be pigeon-holed.

Thelonious Sphere Monk: there's not a more perfect name to fit his compositions than that name.

I can imagine an utter hatred for the jazz avant-garde.

Bud Powell's probably the biggest influence on my piano playing.

What makes bebop legitimate is the fact that when it was done, it was illegitimate.