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" 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.' "

Kurt Elling

Remember

Good

Television

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" My goal is to be really incredible by the time I'm 70. "

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

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

Kurt Elling

Sing

Taught

" 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. "

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

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

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

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

Kurt Elling

Out

Know

" 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. "

" You don't want to make records so you can win a Grammy. You make records because you want to be a musician. "

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

" 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. "

" 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's a wide spectrum of possibilities in how to deliver a song. "

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

Kurt Elling

Lucky

" You don't know what bravery is until you overcome fear. "

" I listened to a lot of King Crimson back in the day. "

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

" If I was going to sell out, I would do it for more than 10,000 records. "

Kurt Elling

Going

Out

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I don't really have a more intellectualized approach. After the fact, I can sure talk about stuff a lot - but when I make decisions, I really just follow what sounds good to me. "

Kurt Elling

Decisions

I Can

" 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. "

" It's a lovely thing to have people in any circumstance appreciate your work. "

" 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. "

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

Kurt Elling

CDs

Twilight

" 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. "

" 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. "