Kurt Elling

“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.”

“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.”

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

“It helps me to learn things in different languages, even if it's just phonetically, and to make myself vulnerable to other audiences by trying to reflect back to them the genius of their own cultures, and to do that, oftentimes, in new jazz settings, new arrangements. It's a way to show respect.”

“Sometimes people have this notion that improvisation is simply intuitive leaping into the unknown.”

“Sometimes, with vocalese, I'm dealing with something, a great solo from the past, which is so iconic I can't presume to change it or mess with it.”

“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.”

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

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

“My goal is to be really incredible by the time I'm 70.”

“I'm a guy who has more slapstick than Joe Cool moments in his day, so I'm not taking myself so seriously.”

“I'm a goof, man.”

“You can start from any source material, and you can approach it with a jazz ear, and then it will become a jazz moment.”

“As improvisers, we're acting as composers in front of people.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“You work very hard on the lyrics. Getting them to fit the contours of improvised melodies.”

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