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" Now, jazz institutions are more readily available for young people, but for me, the institutions were the bands that I was in. When I worked with Clark Terry, that was the beginning of school for me, and Harry Belafonte and Sergio Mendes, they were all my universities. "

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" I did a project called 'Sing The Truth,' which was a lot of fun. It started out being a celebration of the music of Nina Simone, and it was me and Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo. "

Dianne Reeves

Celebration

Truth

Sing

" Jazz musicians have always taken the standards of their time and performed them with a jazz sensibility. "

" When I found out how music made me feel and how my singing made other people feel, that's when I decided this is what I wanted to do. "

Dianne Reeves

Singing

Feel

" I never called myself a jazz singer. I just call myself a vocalist because I love to sing all kinds of things. "

" I like coming home and sharing things I've tasted or seen. "

Dianne Reeves

Things

Sharing

" Early on, I started with classical voice and had that wonderful foundation. For where I wanted to go at that time, there were no teachers to teach it, so I came up with all kinds of different ways to develop the sound of my voice. "

" Your voice is not your instrument. Your voice is the character that you build, your innermost feelings, the things that you want to say, and your instrument is the vehicle that you use to carry the message. "

" Anything that had to do with music is what I wanted to do. "

" My friend Harry Belafonte is an activist and musician, an extraordinary man who has dedicated his life to human rights. He taught me the power of words and that music can be used to heal and educate people. "

" My junior high school teacher, Bennie Williams, was really more than a music teacher. She taught us poetry. She helped us put on school shows. She did all these kinds of things to help us stand in each other's shoes, and it was a really powerful time. That's when I discovered that I could sing. "

" Brazilian music has been a part of almost every record I've done, and I'd eventually like to record an entire album of Brazilian music. "

" My mother was actually born in Toledo and raised in Detroit. "

" I'm a chameleon. When you put me in certain soils, musically speaking, I will be in that place. "

" I have one closet that's just shoes. The woman go, 'Amen,' and the men go, 'Oh my God.' It's color-coordinated from the ceiling to the floor, from evening to casual. "

" I really enjoy going out with my jazz group. That's something that I don't ever want to stop doing. "

" I look back at Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and especially Betty Carter, whom I admire the most, and I say, OK, they set a standard of excellence. I listen to them not for what they are doing, but to study where they are coming from because, for me, jazz is life experience. "

" When I first heard Nina Simone, her naked truth shocked me. Whenever she sang, it felt like lightning bolts in my soul. Every song was like a movie, a unique and very different vignette. "

" The way I look at it, people pay me to travel. Once we get to the stage, that part is easy. "

Dianne Reeves

People

Easy

" I grew up with great mentors in my life who helped me become the singer I am today. "

Dianne Reeves

Today

My Life

" In high school, we had a really great jazz program that I finally was able to be a part of. They only wanted instrumentalists; they didn't want any singers. But I made my way in, and I remember the conductor of the band wrote a lot of arrangements and asked me what I wanted to sing. "

" A lot of young people want to become jazz singers, but there are not more jam sessions like there used to be. I just want to have the opportunity to be able to bring that to some young people. "

" Singers like Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar are very conscious of what's going on around them, and they're waking up lot of young people with that knowledge. They bring their enlightenment to the world; the world that is buying their records. "

" One of the things that I love about Sarah Vaughan is that she was always very current. "

" When I was in junior high school, I knew I really wanted to sing. "

" I didn't learn the word 'genre' until way, way late - I mean, like, in the '80s. "

" My musicians know all of my music, and so that makes for something different. "

" The Confederate flag is a divisive presence - it's the opposite of everything my artistry means and represents. "

" I don't like a lot of monitors on stage. I like the real raw sound of the open piano. "

" Even in a world with much sadness, at its essence, life is beautiful. "

" I think the only way for you to grow and evolve is to keep listening, keep moving forward, keep jumping in and trying to experience. "