Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" Chicago has a burly, action-oriented but still self-assured and relaxed confidence to its stride. The city has a lot of wide-open space and all the possibilities that suggests. There's a lot of horizontal grandeur here. "

Kurt Elling

Space

Possibilities

Confidence

Related Quotes:

" Audiences have taught me how to sing better and entertain better. "

Kurt Elling

Sing

Taught

" It helps me to learn things in different languages, even if it's just phonetically, and to make myself vulnerable to other audiences by trying to reflect back to them the genius of their own cultures, and to do that, oftentimes, in new jazz settings, new arrangements. It's a way to show respect. "

" There's a spiritual complement to any attempt at transposing a commitment to humanity through music or art. "

" Sometimes, with vocalese, I'm dealing with something, a great solo from the past, which is so iconic I can't presume to change it or mess with it. "

" I remember seeing Tony Bennett on television. He was the only guy in the orchestra who was wearing a white tux, and I thought, 'That would be good. To be the only man on stage in a white jacket.' "

" I haven't been afraid of John Coltrane or Miles Davis or Bill Evans or Wayne Shorter or Herbie Hancock. Why would I be afraid of the Beatles? "

" Every record is a gate of a certain kind for me. "

" A lot of people are put off by the idea of scat singing. Either that or it's something to be made fun of. "

" Part of my joy as a singer is to give gifts to people, and one way I try to connect to them is to add something in French or German or whatever. "

" People want to have access to jazz because it has a vibe that's very strong. "

" I'm a guy who has more slapstick than Joe Cool moments in his day, so I'm not taking myself so seriously. "

" It's easy to get tired of religious fundamentalists. They're such a bore. They have no sense of mystery. It's a drag, man. "

" Salacious? I suppose every once in a while the salacious thing is not a bad thing. It's kind of monochromatic if that's all you do. "

" You work very hard on the lyrics. Getting them to fit the contours of improvised melodies. "

" 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. "

" We all know that jazz demands a cultivation of the mind. "

" I'd been studying philosophy at the University of Chicago. I hadn't been doing well, because I was sitting in with jazz musicians at night - it's hard to read Heidegger, but it's especially hard if you're half asleep. "

" The great jazz and jazz-influenced singers carry themselves with a certain panache and a certain elegance and, for lack of a better word, self-confidence. "

" People just want to dig; they want to dance. They don't want to work all through the night, and neither do I. I like getting 'out there,' but communication should be occurring on more levels than heavy-laden philosophical. "

" There are incredible musicians around the world. "

" There is an actor's responsibility in presenting the emotional content of the lyrics to an audience. But whether you do that in a straightforward fashion or an ironic fashion or a blase fashion is all about opportunities, and singers are missing opportunities as artists if they don't pay attention to the lyric. "

" I spend upwards of 200 nights a year on the road. "

" I'm one of the culprits who keeps turning stuff around, shaking up original tunes and trying to stand the canon on its ear. But sometimes, you just need to sing the song. "

" As improvisers, we're acting as composers in front of people. "

" It's pretty rare in jazz to have a full-on steady band. "

" Karl Johnson, my first piano player at Milt Trenier's, he just swung really hard and gave me a sense of really belonging to the jazz scene. "

Kurt Elling

Belonging

Sense

" I try to stick with things that I can sing with honesty. "

" I think of jazz as being homage through innovation. Don't quote that as a definition, but it comes pretty close. "

" Each of the CDs prior to 'Flirting With Twilight' were more like roller-coaster rides. "

Kurt Elling

CDs

Twilight

" I couldn't do what I do without the encouragement and influence of the musicians I played with in Chicago. "