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" 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. "

Kurt Elling

World

People

Time

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" The singer is always an ambassador of music. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" I think of jazz as being homage through innovation. Don't quote that as a definition, but it comes pretty close. "

" 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. "

Kurt Elling

Big

Power

" 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. "

" When improvisation is properly applied, it is compositional thinking, sped way up. "

Kurt Elling

Thinking

Way

" You learn as much as you can from the people that you work with. That's why you want to surround yourself with the heaviest people that you can possibly get to. "

" Sometimes people have this notion that improvisation is simply intuitive leaping into the unknown. "

" 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.' "

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

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

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

Kurt Elling

Lucky

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" Chicago is my home. And the way Chicago sounds will always be a part of who I am. "

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

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

" Music is a physical expression that has a physical impact upon the listener. Sound travels in waves through the air. This is not abstract. This is scientific fact. And it makes physical contact with the eardrum... and with the heart... and with the rest of the body. "

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

Kurt Elling

Greatest

Hear

" In New York, the drummers rush for a reason - because there's so much energy crackling through everything in that city and so many collisions at a highly accelerated rate. "