Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm a goof, man.
I want to be the jazz singer.
The singer is always an ambassador of music.
One doesn't have to scat to be a jazz singer.
The idea is to be unrestrained by categories.
Every record is a gate of a certain kind for me.
I spend upwards of 200 nights a year on the road.
I've got more low notes than I had when I started.
We live in a society where it's cool to be criminal.
I listened to a lot of King Crimson back in the day.
My goal is to be really incredible by the time I'm 70.
I think I make most of my decisions pretty organically.
It's pretty rare in jazz to have a full-on steady band.
You don't know what bravery is until you overcome fear.
Why limit yourself to one discipline or field of study?
We all know that jazz demands a cultivation of the mind.
I try to stick with things that I can sing with honesty.
I had everything to gain by giving it everything I could.
As improvisers, we're acting as composers in front of people.
Audiences have taught me how to sing better and entertain better.
There's a wide spectrum of possibilities in how to deliver a song.
If you start to dwell on your pain, the amount of pain will increase.
I hope that I'm also maturing emotionally as a human being as things go on.
People want to have access to jazz because it has a vibe that's very strong.
It's a lovely thing to have people in any circumstance appreciate your work.
A lot of the commercial world wants to bank in on the cachet that jazz brings.
Chicago is my home. And the way Chicago sounds will always be a part of who I am.
When improvisation is properly applied, it is compositional thinking, sped way up.
The audience should feel they are hearing the future, that is arriving just on time.
Each of the CDs prior to 'Flirting With Twilight' were more like roller-coaster rides.
Listening to something without being present is different from being there in the flesh.
You work very hard on the lyrics. Getting them to fit the contours of improvised melodies.
My strength is to communicate with an audience and to know what jazz singing is capable of.
[Jazz singing] is like pornography. You can't say what it is, but you know it when you see it.
At a certain point, the graduate school thing didn't work out, and that meant I was liberated.
If you're going to be transparent, you're going to have to let the music come that wants to come.
Sometimes people have this notion that improvisation is simply intuitive leaping into the unknown.
I'm lucky that I enjoy touring as much as I do. I'm not going to make a living just making records.
I'm a jazz musician, and I really wanted to not miss an opportunity to have the full connection to jazz.
I'm a guy who has more slapstick than Joe Cool moments in his day, so I'm not taking myself so seriously.
While I revel in the memories of my own Grammy moment, I also know how it feels to walk away empty-handed.
I couldn't do what I do without the encouragement and influence of the musicians I played with in Chicago.
You don't want to make records so you can win a Grammy. You make records because you want to be a musician.
There's a spiritual complement to any attempt at transposing a commitment to humanity through music or art.
I'm thrilled when I hear the greatest jazz musicians. They continue to search in ways other musicians do not.
It's true that I'm not known as a crooner or balladeer. I'm known for a more crusading or quixotic temperament.
I think of jazz as being homage through innovation. Don't quote that as a definition, but it comes pretty close.
I was very lucky that more experienced musicians allowed me to caterwaul until I figured out what it was really about.
I try to sleep as much as I can. I drink a lot of water. I practice consistently and just try to be ready for the gig.
You can start from any source material, and you can approach it with a jazz ear, and then it will become a jazz moment.