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

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" Listening to something without being present is different from being there in the flesh. "

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

" The idea is to be unrestrained by categories. "

" 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. "

" With a smaller setting, you have a lot more freedom and flexibility within a given moment, but not necessarily the velocity you have with a big band. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" I want to be the jazz singer. "

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

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

" You want to be doing your best work whatever field of the arts you're in because your life's going to be over all too soon, and you have to make the most of it. "

" I don't want to take it easy. "

" I've tried to educate myself in the world and what's beautiful and what has meaning and is lasting. Then I just follow my intuition and see how it fits. "

" You don't show respect to Frank Sinatra and his great example by trying to sound exactly like him. You show it by sounding exactly like you, and that's the way jazz has always progressed as an art form. "

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

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

" 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. "

" Out in L.A., things relax even further than they do in Chicago. There's such a looseness to it, and there's a potentially refreshing advantage to that. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I'm a jazz musician, and I really wanted to not miss an opportunity to have the full connection to jazz. "

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

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

" 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. "

" Man, I just feel so fortunate to be a jazz musician at all. I have a hard time thinking of it any other way. It's such a fulfilling vocation. I love it. "

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

" I'm lucky that I enjoy touring as much as I do. I'm not going to make a living just making records. "