Fred Stone discusses working with Duke Ellington.

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Fred Stone discusses muisc as art versus business.

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Fred Stone discusses jazz clubs around the world.

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Q: “Fred, you were extremely busy here in Toronto in all the studios doing all the jingles and TV shows and all that kind of stuff – and you stopped. Why?”

A: “I did it for five years, five or six years. And all during that period, I was feeling an increasing desire to get out and become more creative. I felt myself getting to a point where the music was becoming the same to me. I was losing that feeling of separation. I was losing a distinction between quitting bad music. That's how it gets when you're a studio player, where you're hired to do something and you're, more or less, of a music machine rather than solo or a personality. You play everything or you find that you're playing everything with the same frame of mind as long as it's mechanically or technically perfect then it’s acceptable. And the degree of emotion isn't as important in that type of work, and I started to question my values to the point where, when I had a chance go with Ellington, I just grabbed it because it meant I could make an abrupt end to a managed studio living.”