All my musical foundations go back to the age of 3. My family tell me that I used to listen to the old crystal set, then go to the piano and pick out the tune that I just heard.
On the standard “Lullaby of Birdland,†which he composed one morning at breakfast:
I always tell people, it took me 10 minutes and 35 years in the business. I get tired of playing it, but not of collecting the royalties.
You know, when you’ve established a certain thing, what can you do? You’re stuck with it.
Asked if he had been blind all of his life:
Not yet.