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

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" 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. "

" If I was going to sell out, I would do it for more than 10,000 records. "

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

" 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. "

" There is an actor's responsibility in presenting the emotional content of the lyrics to an audience. But whether you do that in a straightforward fashion or an ironic fashion or a blase fashion is all about opportunities, and singers are missing opportunities as artists if they don't pay attention to the lyric. "

" 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. "

" At a certain point, the graduate school thing didn't work out, and that meant I was liberated. "

Graduate School

" I couldn't do what I do without the encouragement and influence of the musicians I played with in Chicago. "

" 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. "

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

" My intellect was quickened at divinity school, and my abilities to discern were strengthened, and that's always valuable. "

" You don't want to make records so you can win a Grammy. You make records because you want to be a musician. "

" I spend upwards of 200 nights a year on the road. "

" I think my intention was there, and my love for the music was apparent. And there are very few singers who get up and desire to take the kinds of risks that jazz musicians routinely need to be taking. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" With a smaller setting, you have a lot more freedom and flexibility within a given moment, but not necessarily the velocity you have with a big band. "

" 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. "

" The singer is always an ambassador of music. "

" I listened to a lot of King Crimson back in the day. "

" 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. "

" Part of my joy as a singer is to give gifts to people, and one way I try to connect to them is to add something in French or German or whatever. "

" 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. "

Surround Yourself

" Chicago is my home. And the way Chicago sounds will always be a part of who I am. "

" There's a wide spectrum of possibilities in how to deliver a song. "

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

" 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? "

" Salacious? I suppose every once in a while the salacious thing is not a bad thing. It's kind of monochromatic if that's all you do. "

" 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. "