In 1997, a Japanese promoter asked Vincent Herring (right) to bring “a young guy who nobody knows” on a tour with a four-saxophone band that also included Bob Berg and Donald Harrison. Herring invited Eric Alexander (left).

Dino Saluzzi, center, flanked by José Maria Saluzzi, left, and Jacob Young.

Allan Harris, seated, with his band at the Blue Llama in Ann Arbor, Michigan: from left, Jay White, Sylvia Cuenca, Alan Grubner and John Di Martino.

​“That is Heaven right here on Earth,” said vocalist Faye Carol of Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington.

“I’m self-taught, an autodidact as they call it,” said composer Gregg Hill.

“I try to be the same person on stage that I am always. … It’s like why I said I’ve written my name the same way I’ve always had since the sixth grade,” says Isaiah J. Thompson.

Bach improvisers Alan Ferber (left), Jody Redhage Ferber and Mark Ferber.

“With a really great artist, it’s not actually coming from them, it’s coming from their environment,” said Chris Wood, shown at right with his brother Oliver Wood (center) and Jano Rix (left). “They’re just open to reflecting what’s happening around them, and they just have the ability to intuitively recognize what’s good. It’s the beautiful mystery of the creative process, and we’re just constantly trying to surrender to it.”

“I do feel the need to say, ‘I am a jazz musician,’ but I’ve been in these other fields of music, and I do find them all related,” said pianist Paul Cornish.

Always a sharp dresser, Farnsworth wears a pocket square given to him by trumpeter Art Farmer. “You need to look good if you want to hang around me,” Farmer told him.