How do you define, nowadays, swing? Swing today, as always, is indefinable. It's a feeling. Like love, you know it when you feel it and no words can convey the feeling to you. You just have to feel it.

Would you imagine jazz Music without swing and brass? Without brass, no problem. Look at (listen to) all the great piano trios, duos, solos as well as many other configurations without brass. Without swing, that's another story, although many of the jazz subdivisions are not about swinging, such as fusion jazz, free jazz and others. Again, it's about labels which exist only for marketing purposes. It's all music and it's either good or it isn't.

Your opinion about European Improvised Music It's the same as my opinion about American improvised music. Some of it is fantastic and some of it is terrible.

Your opinion about Sidney Catllet Big Sid was one of the greatest drummers of all time and the link between the swing era and all that came after.

Do you call, the Music you play, jazz? Yes. I'm definitely a jazz musician and I do play many styles of jazz. This whole thing of labels can be a problem, but I don't let it bother me too much. If I am doing totally improvised music I don't care if you call it "Free Jazz" or "Creative Improvised Music" or whatever. To me it is spontaneous composition and my playing, although it is also informed by various ethnic musics, contemporary classical music, and anything else which I might hear, is definitely rooted in the jazz tradition.

 Which are the main characteristics of jazz Music? Improvisation and Swing

About your discography please name the famous musicians you recorded with Famous is a relative thing. The musicians you and I might consider "famous" I'm sure most people have never heard of. So how famous is that? Anyhow, I know what you mean. I've been blessed to have had the opportunity make recordings with some of the greatest improvising musicians of our time. Not to say that they all used me on their recordings. In some cases I was on their recordings, some are on my recordings and in some cases we were both sidemen on someone else's project, but the list includes Marshall Allen, Billy Bang, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Pierre Dørge, Burton Greene, Gunter Hampel, Joseph Jarman, Phillip Johnston, Sheila Jordan, Wilber Morris, William Parker, Perry Robinson, Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, Mark Whitecage, Tom Varner.

Are you a percussionist or a drummer? What is the difference? Both. I consider myself a drummer, but a drummer by definition is a percussionist, so I'm both. I consider the modern drum set my instrument and I augment it with a variety of percussion instruments. I studied percussion in college, tympani, xylophone, marimba, played in a percussion ensemble, etc. but I wouldn't accept a gig doing those things because I'm just not that interested and therefore not that good.

Your opinion about Joey Baron Joey is totally great. He plays great and does so in any style of music, he has a great sound on the instrument, he's a good composer and bandleader, and he's fun. I love him.

Which was the last and late important jazz musician? I hope that we haven't seen the last important jazz musician! I can tell you that the last one to have an enormous impact on me was John Coltrane. A lot of people since have played very well and made important and worthwhile music, but no one has come close to having that level of impact on other musicians.

How did it happen - Music - in your life? I was always attracted to music as a child. I didn't begin playing until I was 15 years old and from then on it has been the main focus of my life.

Your favorite musicians and why? My favorites are are those that have an original, immediately recognizable voice. Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Lester Bowie, to name only a few. The list is long.

How contemporary jazz is different from other kinds of contemporary Music? The superior creativity of the musicians who do it.

Is a drum solo still useful? Of course.

The best things in life are free. Do you agree? Yes.

 Why the word free for a jazz style so old and simple? When the term "free jazz" came into being, nearly fifty years ago, the style was new and it referred primarily to being free from the restriction of improvising on a repetitive chord sequence.

Armstrong´s jazz was it not free jazz? Jazz by it's nature is about freedom, but with freedom comes responsibity. In Louis's day the concept of a solo was new, so to improvise for an entire chorus was an enormous amount of freedom, and with it came the responisibility to be in control of the harmony and structure AND make a cohesive musical statement. It was more freedom than most musicians could handle at that time, but Louis showed the way. Freedom, like fame, which we spoke of earlier, is a relative thing.

The European and USA market for the Music you play are they good? The European market has been much better, both in terms of audience appreciation and in terms of funding. Unfortunately, recently things have been changing dramatically worldwide and support for the arts is dwindling almost everywhere. Without support for creative music and the artists who create it we could soon find ourselves in a world where the only thing we have to hear is Britanny Spears.

Please list the contacts you had with Portuguese jazz scene The story of my involvment with the Portugese scene is a really nice one. About three years ago I received an email from a Portugese jazz fan, Eduardo Chagas, telling me that he and a few of his friends were big fans of mine and of the CIMP label in general. I'm always happy to be in touch with people who care about the music, so I wrote back to him and we became email friends. He told me that he and his friends had a "jam session" one night a week where they get together and listen to recordings, each bringing their favorite new discoveries, and they even kept a book where they wrote who attended and who they listened to each week. These are some serious fans! Awhile later he wrote that he and three of his friends were coming to New York for a week to hear music and would like to meet me. It was my pleasure to spend time with them and take them around town to hear and meet many of the musicians they admired. One of the four was Pedro Costa and at about that time Pedro began to be heavily involved with bookin g musicians in Portugal. In March, 2001 I played at the Banlieues Blues festival in Paris with Roswell Rudd. When I found that i would be doing that I contacted Pedro and said that since Paris was not so far from Portugal maybe I could take a side trip and play with some Portugese musicians. One thing led to another, and eventualy it worked out that I came with trombonist Steve Swell and bassist Ken Filiano, who were also on Roswell's band. We played two nights at The Hot Club in Lisbon and then did a concert at a theater in Seixal, which Pedro recorded and was subsequently released as the first release on his new label called Clean Feed. The CD title is "The Implicate Order/at Seixal" It's a great CD. We're very proud of the music on this recording and I must say that is is one of the most well recorded and beautifully packaged projects I've ever been involved with. During our second set two great Portuguese musicians sat in with us and they also appear on the CD. Rodrigo Amado on baritone sax and Paulo Cura do on alto and soprano sax. Great, great musicians and beautiful human beings. What a pleasure that was. Also during this visit we had a jam session in some studio with Rodrigo and Amado as well as a number of other excellent local musicians including trumpeter Sei Miguel and trombonist Fala Mariam. While I was in Portugal on that trip, two other opportunities were offered to me. I was invited to bring a group of CIMP recording artists to play at Salao Lisboa, an exhibit of Portugese cartoon artists. The group I brought for that included Roy Campbell Jr, Rob Brown, Ivo Perleman, Wilber Morris and Tomas Ulrich, and I was also invited to perform with my Dixieland band (yes, Dixieland!), the Dixie Peppers, at Festas Lisboa, and it didn't end there. On that trip Roy Campbell and Wiber Morris were also brought in and after my festival with the Dixieland band, the next day Roy and Wilber and I went to Porto and taped a performance for the fantastic TV series Jazz A Preto E Branco. Although 2001 was my first opportunity to come to Portugal, it evolved into three trips to Portugal and several wonderful events and musical associations in a very short time. I'd like to say that I am interested in developing associations with other Portuguese jazz musicians, both mainstream and avant-garde. I'm open to all possibilities.

Is a contemporary free jazz big band possible? In the right hands, anything is possible.

 Do you always pay attention to be musically commercial? Only when I'm hired to play commercial music.

Which are the moments you consider as the main moments of your career? Everytime I get on a bandstand or in a recording studio with any of the great musicians I respect and admire is a main moment to me.