“I asked him, ‘Why me?’ He said, ‘It’s true there are a lot of players who play as good as you, others bet­ter than you, but you are a new face, a new name. That’s good for the group. Whenever there’s a new name, people ask about it.’ I really thought that was extraordinary. He could have said to me, ‘It would be good for you, playing with me will get you recognition,’ what have you. But he didn’t. He was honest, straight–ahead honest. That impressed me so much I joined the group.” – Pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi on joining the Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop in 1962. Quoted in Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus by Gene Santoro (Oxford University Press, 2000).