Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Travel
Time
World
Related Quotes:
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Communication
Work
Want
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Mind
You
Enough
" We all know that jazz demands a cultivation of the mind. "
Kurt Elling
Demands
Mind
Know
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Opportunities
Fashion
Responsibility
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Life
You
Work
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Myself
Respect
Own
" The singer is always an ambassador of music. "
Kurt Elling
Ambassador
Always
Singer
" Audiences have taught me how to sing better and entertain better. "
Kurt Elling
Sing
Me
Taught
" 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
Me
Decisions
I Can
" As improvisers, we're acting as composers in front of people. "
Kurt Elling
Front
People
Acting
" 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
" I hope that I'm also maturing emotionally as a human being as things go on. "
Kurt Elling
Hope
Human
Human Being
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
World
You
Time
" I think I make most of my decisions pretty organically. "
Kurt Elling
Pretty
I Think
Most
" There are incredible musicians around the world. "
Kurt Elling
Incredible
Musicians
World
" At a certain point, the graduate school thing didn't work out, and that meant I was liberated. "
Kurt Elling
Point
Work
Graduate School
" Listening to something without being present is different from being there in the flesh. "
Kurt Elling
Listening
Without
Present
" One doesn't have to scat to be a jazz singer. "
Kurt Elling
Jazz Singer
Singer
Jazz
" You don't know what bravery is until you overcome fear. "
Kurt Elling
Overcome
You
Bravery
" Chicago is my home. And the way Chicago sounds will always be a part of who I am. "
Kurt Elling
Way
Will
Always
" 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
" I've worked with a number of big bands, but there's nothing in life like the Basie band. "
Kurt Elling
Big
Number
Nothing
" You don't want to make records so you can win a Grammy. You make records because you want to be a musician. "
Kurt Elling
Records
Win
You
" I'm a goof, man. "
Kurt Elling
Man
Goof
" The musicians in Chicago gave me my vocation, but New York calls to a jazz musician, for sure. You want to test your mettle. "
Kurt Elling
Musicians
You
Jazz
" We live in a society where it's cool to be criminal. "
Kurt Elling
Criminal
Where
Society
" I spend upwards of 200 nights a year on the road. "
Kurt Elling
Spend
Road
Nights
" A lot of people are put off by the idea of scat singing. Either that or it's something to be made fun of. "
Kurt Elling
Off
Fun
Something
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Great
Self-Confidence
Better
" When improvisation is properly applied, it is compositional thinking, sped way up. "
Kurt Elling
Up
Thinking
Way