709 Jazz Quotes for You to Enjoy

A lot of the commercial world wants to bank in on the cachet that jazz brings. Kurt Elling

World Jazz Lot Commercial Bank Wants Brings

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. Kurt Elling

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. Kurt Elling

Myself Me Respect Genius Reflect Own Jazz Other Settings Back Way New Make Learn Vulnerable Arrangements Audiences Cultures Trying Oftentimes Just Different Them Languages Show Even Helps Things

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

Rare Band Jazz Pretty Steady Full-On

One doesn't have to scat to be a jazz singer. Kurt Elling

Jazz Singer Jazz Singer

I'd been studying philosophy at the University of Chicago. I hadn't been doing well, because I was sitting in with jazz musicians at night - it's hard to read Heidegger, but it's especially hard if you're half asleep. Kurt Elling

You Musicians Half Jazz Philosophy Studying Well Read Because Doing Been Chicago Sitting Asleep Hard Jazz Musicians Night University

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. Kurt Elling

Me First Sense Jazz Gave Scene Johnson Piano Piano Player He Just Really Karl Hard Swung Player Belonging

You don't show respect to Frank Sinatra and his great example by trying to sound exactly like him. You show it by sounding exactly like you, and that's the way jazz has always progressed as an art form. Kurt Elling

My brothers came home with country, jazz, everything... it was always very normal to me to make any type of music. It was possible to fuse all the sounds, so it never sounded confusing to me to mix jazz and dubstep. Labrinth

I've never been on a board, but I just went on the board for Jazz at Lincoln Center. I'm very happy about that. Larry Gagosian

Happy Jazz About Never Lincoln Been Very Just Center Board

I don't think theater is dying, and musicals are a great American art form. We've got apple pie, jazz and musical theater. Laura Benanti

Art Great Jazz Think Great American Musical Musical Theater Musicals Pie Got Art Form American Form Dying Theater Apple Apple Pie

Someday, I hope to do a jazz club tour. Lauren Daigle

Hope Club Jazz Someday Tour

It has been difficult to hold onto many paintings but I have retained a few. Possibly the current favorite is titled 'Big Band' completed in 2005. It measures 13 feet x 9 feet. It has 18 nearly life size recognizable portraits of the biggest jazz stars that I knew and saw perform in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s and includes Wynton Marsalis. LeRoy Neiman

Life Big Band Few Jazz Stars Difficult Saw Completed Favorite Recognizable Has-Been Possibly Onto Knew Perform Feet Big Band Been Current Size Hold Biggest Measures Many Paintings Nearly Portraits

Whether I do jazz or R&B, there are always complaints. I would just listen to the complaints about what I do instead of celebrating what I do, and that I'm different and in my own lane. It took a while for me to just ignore the doubts. Ledisi

Me Own Jazz Took Complaints Would About My Own Instead Always Celebrating Listen Just Different Whether While Lane Doubts Ignore

I listen to classical music very much. There's a lot of jazz that I don't enjoy listening to. Lee Konitz

Music Listening Jazz Enjoy Classical Classical Music Lot Very Listen Much

I hate Stanley Clark, but I have to admit he's playing Jazz whether I like it or not. Lester Bangs

Hate Jazz Clark Admit He Like Whether Stanley Playing

As I became an adult, I listened to a lot of jazz, to the ladies of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRae and Nina Simone. I loved that they each covered the same songs and interpreted them totally differently. I thought that was so cool. They could each paint their own picture of that moment. Lindsay Mendez

Thought Picture Own Jazz Nina Nina Simone Totally Could Adult Songs Became Covered Lot Fitzgerald Same Listened Ladies Loved Them Moment Paint Cool Each Differently Interpreted Ella Ella Fitzgerald

I'm a rapper and, obviously, hip hop rap is my main thing. But I also like to dive into different genres and kind of be a bit more experimental and open myself up a bit, whether that's taking influence from jazz or soul or electronic. Little Simz

Myself Soul Rapper Jazz Bit Rap Hop Kind Dive More Main Open Main Thing Taking Like Also Obviously Genres Hip Hip-Hop Up Influence Different Experimental Whether Different Genres Electronic Thing

I call myself a singer-songwriter influenced by the gospel and jazz tradition. Naturally, because of my lifestyle and love for nature, there's a lot of folk and Americana there because that's just my life. Lizz Wright

Life Love Myself Nature My Life Jazz Folk Lifestyle Singer-Songwriter Call Gospel Because Tradition Lot Just Influenced Naturally Americana

For me, I just want to sing about life. And since I come from a spiritual background, I turned to jazz, because I feel it's still sacred, like gospel. It's serious music, but it allows room to sing about so much other stuff as well. Lizz Wright

Life Music Spiritual Me Jazz Other Background About Sacred Feel Stuff Since Come Like Sing Well Gospel Because Still Just Want Room Turned Much Serious

I've gone the full spectrum - from gospel to blues to jazz to soul to pop - and the public has accepted what I've done through it all. I think it means I've been doing something right at the right time. Lou Rawls

When I was in college, I had a jazz radio show. I called it 'Excursion on a Wobbly Rail,' after a Cecil Taylor song. I used to run around the Village following Ornette Coleman wherever he played. Lou Reed

The old jazz singers or old blues singers, you always just saw them kind of sitting down and singing. They weren't worried as much about their voice sounding perfect. They would make the song kind of fit their voice. Lucinda Williams

We mix a lot of genres - soul, pop, jazz - but we most agree on hip-hop. Lukas Forchhammer

Soul Jazz Most Genres Hip-Hop Mix Lot Pop Agree

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