Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" Sometimes people have this notion that improvisation is simply intuitive leaping into the unknown. "
Kurt Elling
Unknown
Simply
People
Related Quotes:
" You want to be doing your best work whatever field of the arts you're in because your life's going to be over all too soon, and you have to make the most of it. "
Kurt Elling
Life
You
Work
" My goal is to be really incredible by the time I'm 70. "
Kurt Elling
Incredible
Goal
Really
" If you're going to be transparent, you're going to have to let the music come that wants to come. "
Kurt Elling
Transparent
Going
Come
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Surround Yourself
You
Work
" My strength is to communicate with an audience and to know what jazz singing is capable of. "
Kurt Elling
Know
Strength
Audience
" Why limit yourself to one discipline or field of study? "
Kurt Elling
Limit
Study
Why
" At a certain point, the graduate school thing didn't work out, and that meant I was liberated. "
Kurt Elling
Point
Work
Graduate School
" If I was going to sell out, I would do it for more than 10,000 records. "
Kurt Elling
More
Going
Out
" Grammy nominations are certainly pleasant, but you can forget about them and lead a perfectly happy life - provided you have the approval of the musicians you work with. "
Kurt Elling
Happy
Happy Life
Musicians
" Listening to something without being present is different from being there in the flesh. "
Kurt Elling
Listening
Without
Present
" I've worked with a number of big bands, but there's nothing in life like the Basie band. "
Kurt Elling
Big
Number
Nothing
" I couldn't do what I do without the encouragement and influence of the musicians I played with in Chicago. "
Kurt Elling
Encouragement
Influence
Musicians
" 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
" People just want to dig; they want to dance. They don't want to work all through the night, and neither do I. I like getting 'out there,' but communication should be occurring on more levels than heavy-laden philosophical. "
Kurt Elling
Communication
Work
Want
" As improvisers, we're acting as composers in front of people. "
Kurt Elling
Front
People
Acting
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Great
Self-Confidence
Better
" Audiences have taught me how to sing better and entertain better. "
Kurt Elling
Sing
Me
Taught
" I haven't been afraid of John Coltrane or Miles Davis or Bill Evans or Wayne Shorter or Herbie Hancock. Why would I be afraid of the Beatles? "
Kurt Elling
Would
Miles
Beatles
" 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
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Things
Refreshing
Relax
" I consider myself very fortunate. I have a beautiful wife who supports my work and is raising our daughter when I'm out on the road. "
Kurt Elling
Wife
Myself
Beautiful
" 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 think I make most of my decisions pretty organically. "
Kurt Elling
Pretty
I Think
Most
" It's pretty rare in jazz to have a full-on steady band. "
Kurt Elling
Band
Steady
Rare
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Secret
Three
Scene
" We all know that jazz demands a cultivation of the mind. "
Kurt Elling
Demands
Mind
Know
" 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
" I've tried to learn as much as I can about the great jazz singers to understand what makes them important, vital artists, but there is always something more to learn. "
Kurt Elling
Jazz
Learn
Important
" 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. "
Kurt Elling
Original
Need
You
" There's a spiritual complement to any attempt at transposing a commitment to humanity through music or art. "
Kurt Elling
Any
Art
Commitment