We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records.
I'm fortunate that I'm making a living at it now because I'm not equipped to do anything else.
I listen to everything, I listen to all artists that come along.
I did jazz dance for a few years.
In my teenage years I was as addicted to great pop as I was to free jazz, electronic music, and hardcore blues.
I am a complete jazz nerd.
You know the rules. No jazz before a rumble.
When I'm in the classical world, I really treat it as exactly classical and I don't try and spruce it up or jazz it up or make it easier for the masses.
I am comfortable with anything I sing: jazz, gospel, classical. It doesn't matter. I can do it all.
I got into trad jazz, then modern jazz, then avant-garde jazz, between the ages of 16 to 18.
You have to know composition to be a good improviser.
Everybody's not going to like jazz, let's just be honest about it. Everybody doesn't like everything. There's a disconnect in generations and some people just aren't going to feel that music.
For the most part, 99 percent of jazz is boring; you've heard it before. People aren't doing anything creative that's extremely modern. They tend to always be like "Let's do a tribute to Miles Davis!" All the new albums are tributes to history. It becomes too much at a certain point, it leaves us waving like "Hello? I'm alive, I'm here!" You know? So I really do feel like it needs some spice, it needs to be relevant to today's times, today's people, today's sound.
Possibly, I should have been a jazz singer from the beginning.
I recorded my first jazz record in the '70s.
I've always loved jazz.
I wanted to make a jazz record. I didn't want it to be a standards record.
I put out a recording of me singing mostly jazz because I wanted people to know I'm coming from a jazz background.
I wanted to play some more grown-up music - jazz.
I would also like to mention pianists like Michel Petrucciani or Chick Сorea for whom I have great admiration in the jazz field.
I'm reserved, so I've always needed to find a way of opening up. Jazz helped me do that.
When I discovered Mose Allison I felt I had discovered the missing link between jazz and blues
Playing the sax and then enjoying jazz music man. It's like I learned how to find words inside of the beat.
My personal trainer is an ex-dancer so we do a lot of ballet and jazz.
I listen to jazz about three hours a day. I love Louis Armstrong.
