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" Of course we all know when music's too much in the head, and we define our greatest players by the way they are able to communicate directly from their emotional selves. "

Kurt Elling

Know

Define

Too Much

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" If you're going to be transparent, you're going to have to let the music come that wants to come. "

" 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. "

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

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Lucky

" Karl Johnson, my first piano player at Milt Trenier's, he just swung really hard and gave me a sense of really belonging to the jazz scene. "

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Belonging

Sense

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

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Greatest

Hear

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

" 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. "

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Big

Power

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

" 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. "

" The musicians in Chicago gave me my vocation, but New York calls to a jazz musician, for sure. You want to test your mettle. "

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

Kurt Elling

Thinking

Way

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

Kurt Elling

Sing

Taught

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

Kurt Elling

CDs

Twilight

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

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

" I can't say New York's home, but I've made a lot of friends, and I'm developing a map of what cats are here and where they play, and as a singer, you're always looking for projects that tie things in emotionally and intuitively with your life. "

" We live in a society where it's cool to be criminal. "

" It's pretty rare in jazz to have a full-on steady band. "

" I'm a jazz musician, and I really wanted to not miss an opportunity to have the full connection to jazz. "