Maria Schneider: First of all, orchestrating for Gil Evans is something. That's just something no mortal should do but here I was in my 20s doing it and he entrusted me and I remember one time I brought this thing in to him that I'd finish and he recoiled, he was so horrified at what I'd written which was textbook. It was exactly like I learned at Eastman. It was textbook. He said, "No. Oh my God, no, Maria. I want some of the high instruments going to be bottom of the range and I want some of the low instruments going up out of the range so at the end everybody feels like they're struggling." And I remember just thinking, "Oh my God, what a freethinker" and no wonder Gil's music is just undeniably him. It can't be anybody else's. Those were the moments that made me say, "I got to start my own band because I need to find out what are my quirks? I want to find out who I am. I want to be as much Maria as Gil is Gil.