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" Listening to something without being present is different from being there in the flesh. "
Kurt Elling
Listening
Without
Present
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" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Body
Heart
Waves
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Beautiful
Meaning
Myself
" I've got more low notes than I had when I started. "
Kurt Elling
Started
Low
Than
" Every record is a gate of a certain kind for me. "
Kurt Elling
Every
Record
Certain
" It must be a hellish thing to know what's possible in music, to be hearing things all the time and not have an appropriate outlet for them. "
Kurt Elling
Time
Know
Possible
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Jazz
Doing
Musicians
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
City
Reason
New
" 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
" While I revel in the memories of my own Grammy moment, I also know how it feels to walk away empty-handed. "
Kurt Elling
Know
Moment
Walk
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
God
Time
Opportunity
" The idea is to be unrestrained by categories. "
Kurt Elling
Categories
Idea
" We all know that jazz demands a cultivation of the mind. "
Kurt Elling
Demands
Mind
Know
" I hope to be at the top of my game when I'm 65 or 70. I don't want to reach my peak at 29. Not that I'm holding back anything, but there's a bunch of junk I don't know. "
Kurt Elling
Know
Want
Reach
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
I Can
Practice
Water
" There's a spiritual complement to any attempt at transposing a commitment to humanity through music or art. "
Kurt Elling
Any
Art
Commitment
" Audiences have taught me how to sing better and entertain better. "
Kurt Elling
Sing
Me
Taught
" You can start from any source material, and you can approach it with a jazz ear, and then it will become a jazz moment. "
Kurt Elling
Will
Jazz
Moment
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Get
Man
Tired
" 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
" I'm a guy who has more slapstick than Joe Cool moments in his day, so I'm not taking myself so seriously. "
Kurt Elling
Myself
Day
Moments
" You don't know what bravery is until you overcome fear. "
Kurt Elling
Overcome
You
Bravery
" I think I make most of my decisions pretty organically. "
Kurt Elling
Pretty
I Think
Most
" I've worked with a number of big bands, but there's nothing in life like the Basie band. "
Kurt Elling
Big
Number
Nothing
" 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
" The singer is always an ambassador of music. "
Kurt Elling
Ambassador
Always
Singer
" 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 don't want to take it easy. "
Kurt Elling
Take
Easy
Want
" My goal is to be really incredible by the time I'm 70. "
Kurt Elling
Incredible
Goal
Really
" It's pretty rare in jazz to have a full-on steady band. "
Kurt Elling
Band
Steady
Rare
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Experience
Think
Art