A brief excerpt below. Read the full interview at the Stanford Lively Arts blog.

SLA: I would say the work you’re playing is not what the average big-band trumpet player would play. What would you say sets it apart?

DD: I think a lot of people say “straight-ahead” jazz and then don’t give the credit to these giants like Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, and Lee Morgan. What they did was so special and so magical and, yes, it’s been copied over the years and so now when somebody plays like that they say it’s straight ahead. But those guys, when they created it, were the freshest thing on the scene. They were young upstarts. I think to give them that credit is really important.

Jazz Conversations (all at the Art Bar [map] and all free) include:

* Friday, 2/26 at 4pm: Tom D’Antoni with Craig Handy of the Mingus Big Band
* Friday, 2/26 at 5pm: Tim DuRoche with Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli
* Friday 2/26 at 6pm: Matt Fleeger with Christian Wallumrod
* Saturday 2/27 at 12pm: Steven Cantor with Dave Holland
* Saturday 2/27 at 6:30pm: Barry Jonson with Pharoah Sanders
* Sunday 2/28 at 12pm: Lloyd Peterson with Dave Douglas