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" People think jazz music is all standards and the Great American Songbook. But it's really about the sensibility, the feel you bring to the music. "

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" I believe that music should really be without boundaries. "

" 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. "

" I had a few celebrity crushes when I was growing up, including Eddie Kendricks from the Temptations. And I loved Marvin Gaye - I thought he was everything and instantly fell for his voice. "

" I think that when I started singing, I didn't know what I wanted to do; I only knew what I didn't want to do. "

" Nina Simone is a musical genius and a rich and precious treasure who paid a heavy price for her artistic freedom. "

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

" 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. "

" Some people think that all you do is record, and it's not the case. You take on other projects as well, and you have to live a little bit because it inspires your work. "

" The thing that I tell young people is everybody is unique in their approach to the music, and you have to protect that. "

" The biggest thing is to just keep your voice in shape so that when the emotion hits, it's there to have the colors to paint those pictures with the lyrics as well as the sound. "

" I think an artist who has it in their heart to do or say something, they'll say it. It's not something that's mandatory, but it will come out. "

" I'm a great cook. People have asked me to do a cookbook. "

" My musical selections are a reflection of how I grew up. Because, back then, you could see Miles Davis and Ravi Shankar on the same stage. And nobody thought anything of it, other than the fact that it was great music. "

" I always say that improvisation is the utterance of one's spirit, and it dictates your life experience, and that's how you find your concepts and your way for painting your musical picture. "

" Jazz musicians have always tended to have cult followings, which is pretty wonderful. "

" And I've found that, you know, the world of music is so vast and so broad, but at the same time, it's easy to find parts of yourself in places that you wouldn't even think that you were, you know? "

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

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

" I think people have come to know that I am not comfortable in a box, you know, and that I love music. "

" I had really great art classes. Really great art teachers. Arts played a very important role in having a place to express yourself uniquely. "

" 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. "

" I never wanted to do anything else, really. I left home at an early age trying to find my voice, my niche in music. "

" My mother was really amazing and left me with a whole lot of treasures. I miss her terribly. "

" I always have a little bit of Brazil and New Orleans in my band. "

" I knew what the story behind 'Dreams' was. It was about Stevie Knicks' relationship. But when I sing it, it's about sharing some sage advice with somebody. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I think jazz is the foundation for a lot of great musicians, and then after that, you know, it's this broad expression of things that really have influenced and addressed your life. "

" The biggest thing is, when I was coming up, the thing that made you wonderful was your uniqueness. People celebrated that. "

" Each project that you do is something you believe in for that moment in time. "