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" I can't say New York's home, but I've made a lot of friends, and I'm developing a map of what cats are here and where they play, and as a singer, you're always looking for projects that tie things in emotionally and intuitively with your life. "

Kurt Elling

Life

You

Looking

Related Quotes:

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

" 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. "

" That's the thing: There are so many art songs in jazz. It's a much more rich experience for the singer than people think. "

" The idea is to be unrestrained by categories. "

Kurt Elling

Categories

Idea

" I hope that I'm also maturing emotionally as a human being as things go on. "

" Why limit yourself to one discipline or field of study? "

" 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. "

" There are incredible musicians around the world. "

" 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. "

Kurt Elling

Greatest

Hear

" 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. "

" I've tried to learn as much as I can about the great jazz singers to understand what makes them important, vital artists, but there is always something more to learn. "

" I think I make most of my decisions pretty organically. "

" You don't just let a guy drop off the earth and not come together with everybody who knew him and loved him and respected him. You try to do it the right way. "

" I had everything to gain by giving it everything I could. "

" You can never predict what the specific shape of your life is going to be, and you won't really know its general shape until, God willing, you're advanced in years and you have the time and opportunity to look back in a coherent way and see what your life was about. "

" 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 think my intention was there, and my love for the music was apparent. And there are very few singers who get up and desire to take the kinds of risks that jazz musicians routinely need to be taking. "

" A lot of the commercial world wants to bank in on the cachet that jazz brings. "

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

" 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. "

" My intellect was quickened at divinity school, and my abilities to discern were strengthened, and that's always valuable. "

" I was very lucky that more experienced musicians allowed me to caterwaul until I figured out what it was really about. "

Kurt Elling

Lucky

" Of course we all know when music's too much in the head, and we define our greatest players by the way they are able to communicate directly from their emotional selves. "

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

" I consider myself very fortunate. I have a beautiful wife who supports my work and is raising our daughter when I'm out on the road. "

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

" I travel all the time. And as I go around the world, I try to learn a little something and not just take up all the available air. "

" Romance is one of the things that most countries share, and I've noticed how different communities have their own ways of singing about love and heartbreak. "

" I've worked with a number of big bands, but there's nothing in life like the Basie band. "