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

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" I didn't arrive on the scene until after Jaco Pastorius had passed, but 'Three Views of a Secret' is a long-time favourite of mine. "

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

" It's true that I'm not known as a crooner or balladeer. I'm known for a more crusading or quixotic temperament. "

" 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. "

" We live in a society where it's cool to be criminal. "

" I've got enough miles under my belt to know that whatever you envision in your mind, even if it comes true, will only keep a shape in the most general way. "

" I like the power and versatility of a big band and how an orchestra can vary the dynamics from very loud to very quiet, and SNJO covers those bases. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

Self-Confidence

" I know how hard it's been for me to get my thing out there. "

" If you're going to be transparent, you're going to have to let the music come that wants to come. "

" 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. "

" I really thought I was gonna have a straight gig. But these jazz musicians put their arms around me time and again and said, 'Hey, young fella, you're one of us. Come with us.' That's a big deal when you're young and looking for your way in the world. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I've got more low notes than I had when I started. "

" 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. "

" At a certain point, the graduate school thing didn't work out, and that meant I was liberated. "

Graduate School

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

" You can start from any source material, and you can approach it with a jazz ear, and then it will become a jazz moment. "

" It's a beautiful thing to have time in the world, as a singer and as a musician, to make friends with people of the musical caliber of a Tommy Smith, an Arturo Sandoval, a Richard Galliano, a Till Broenner. "

" The musicians in Chicago gave me my vocation, but New York calls to a jazz musician, for sure. You want to test your mettle. "

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

" I'm thrilled when I hear the greatest jazz musicians. They continue to search in ways other musicians do not. "

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

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