If I had the power to change one thing that I think would dramatically affect the art form as a whole, I would implement a top-40 jazz format in jazz radio. It seems pretty obvious to me that, in this very competitive market for listeners' ears and people's dollars, you need to hear something more than once. You need to hear a song several times. What I think would happen if you created a top-40 format is, first of all, it would make the industry more competitive, and everybody and their mother won't be able to have a song on the radio, which leaves a lot of people out. Which I think is a good thing. It should be competitive.

If you get a song on the radio, you should be out on the street dancing and saying, "I finally made it on the radio!" But it's not like that. It's like you go to your buddy who's a DJ and they can spin it for you, which is really kind of sad.

You need young stars in this art form, in any art form. You need people to herald. It was great when Wynton Marsalis was a big star and all of that. It definitely helped the art form.

And what you do if it's not 24 hours a day of top-40, you do 18 hours, and then you do an hour show on Big Band. A two-hour show for the '50s music, or something, but the vast majority of time you should be playing current releases by living artists. People say jazz is dead. I say, hell, if you listen to the radio you would think so.

RJ: How satisfied are you with how the new CD turned out? Do you care about what the critics might think?

SH: I'm always curious to see what critics will say. I don't take it to heart or anything. It's just a matter of opinion, but on occasion I'll read something that a critic says that I find to be true, and I'll say, hmm, maybe I do need to work on that. I can learn from anyone.

I'm very happy with how this new CD came out. I definitely feel like this is my best CD by far. I feel like conceptually it's very concise. We really accomplished what we set out to accomplish. That was finding this hybrid effect where you can take acoustic instruments and just add a little electric coloring here and there to enhance the sound of acoustic instruments to make it sound much more modern. This record really grooves. It feels good. At the same time, we're not holding back with our improvisation. I mean, it's harmonically advanced, but very melodically accessible.

RJ: Why did you decide to cover Sting's "Until"?

SH: At this point in my career - I think I've always had this mentality, I'm moving forward and talking about it even more - musicians of my generation, it's our responsibility to take ownership of the music and decide that it's our music and that we're going to make of it whatever we choose to make of it. It doesn't really matter what other people say. Otherwise we're going to end up missing out on tons of great music that's out here and that's being created now.

So, in looking for a cover, or a standard to play, I always say, "Well, why not have something that's new for me?" I was watching the movie Kate & Leopold, and at the end of the movie I heard this incredible piece of music, so I decided to transcribe and play it. [laughing] So, hopefully that will become a standard. I just fell in love with the melody. When I listen to [the song], it's still refreshing to me because it's new to me. I haven't heard 40 versions of it a thousand times and had to study and analyze it and flip it upside down.

RJ: Who are some of your favorite poets?

SH: I like Pablo Neruda, and just bought Saul Williams' new book Said the Shotgun to the Head.

RJ: What are you listening to these days?

SH: At this stage, I don't really listen to very much jazz at all. It's like music has become more recreational for me. I listen to pop music. I like some hip hop and rap, all types of stuff. I listen to Radiohead, Audio Slave, Kayne West - I really like his new CD.

What are we going to be saying in 2,000 years? Are we going to be saying to musicians that you need to learn 2,000 years, every musician along the way? Give me a break. You should study anything that's great, that moves you.

Any jazz musician that I've transcribed and stolen from, it's because they have moved me spiritually. There's something in there that I'm very curious about. It's not just because I'm supposed to study them in a historical context. If it moves me, I'll check it out.

Like the composition by Sting. It moved me now.

Robin James welcomes reader responses to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it