Quotes from Jon Gordon

Love the process and you'll love what the process produces.

You fuel your life with trust and love instead of fear and doubt.

There are a lot of different ways you can be a part of this music and love it and make a contribution that's personal to you.

Letting people share their gifts and strengths is real love.

I was really falling in love with jazz and dedicating myself in that direction.

Aesthetically, I love the whole history of the music.

I love to see people recognized [me on scene].

You do [jazz] because you love it and hope many some others may as well. You do this because you need it.

We often have to lose what we thought we wanted to find what God wants for us

If you are complaining you can't be thinking about or creating what you do want.

I was occasionally getting calls for some things. But I would say, 22 to 29 was a lot of scuffling. Hoping to get called for bad wedding gigs and I did do an off-Broadway show for about 15 months.

You need to work as hard to be a great teammate as you do to be a great player

[Phil Wood] knew about wine. He knew about food. He knew about art. He knew about classical music. He was interested in things.

Justin Di Cioccio led a jazz program at Music and Art, but there was no jazz in Performing Arts. After they joined, it became Laguardia School of Arts.

If you want to make [your own way in music] it as a player, which is very difficult, as Art Blakey said to me, "We're blessed to have the opportunity to do this." So just keep that in mind.

I remember Art Blakey saying to me, "Just remember, we're blessed to do what we do."

All we can do is go about our work. But we can have a goal. We can have a dream.

I've been thankful to work with some wonderful people and sort of combine forces with some folks that... like in recent years, working with Alan Ferber or his brother Mark who's a wonderful drummer.

I think we're in a time and place, the last 20 plus years, and certainly now, it's only more so, where it's just about us creating a body of work. Creating hopefully our own scene.

Now we also need people who just love to listen to the music. And we need people that want to work to facilitate it. That want to do work, have somebody like Bret Primack, the jazz video guy.

The best thing you can do is just go and have fun with [competition].

Leadership is not just about what you do but what you can inspire, encourage and empower others to do.

I was studying with Joe Allard, which was great, as a saxophone student. Being able to study with Joe Allard was an incredible experience.

No challenge can stop you if you have the courage to keep moving forward in the face of your greatest fears and biggest challenges. Be courageous.