We’ve been talking about jazz this whole time, but to the younger generation you’re mostly known as someone whose work has been sampled in countless hip-hop songs.

[Pauses] Is that a question? [Laughs]

On first glance, you’re probably the last person in the world that would be associated with hip-hop, as indelible as the melodies and the compositions that you’ve come up with are. Do you have any idea how it all started? I’m guessing it was from “Nautilus,” but when did you first realize that something was going on there?

I wish I knew. I was flabbergasted, and I think I was probably a little bit slow in even finding out about that crazy phenomenon that happened. The first one that I discovered came about as a result of a friend calling me to ask me if I was aware of [DJ] Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, and they had a recording [“Here We Go Again”] in which they had sampled my recording of “Westchester Lady.” This came before, whether or not historically it came before the sampling of “Nautilus,” I don’t know, but this was the first one that I became aware of. And it reached the public spotlight because their record [“Parents Just Don’t Understand”] won the [Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance].

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