You work very hard on the lyrics. Getting them to fit the contours of improvised melodies. — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
If you're going to be transparent, you're going to have to let the music come that wants to come. — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
I hope that I'm also maturing emotionally as a human being as things go on. — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
I'm a jazz musician, and I really wanted to not miss an opportunity to have the full connection to jazz. — Kurt Elling Connection Copy Share Image
When improvisation is properly applied, it is compositional thinking, sped way up. — Kurt Elling Improvisation Copy Share Image
I'm a guy who has more slapstick than Joe Cool moments in his day, so I'm not taking myself so seriously. — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
A lot of the commercial world wants to bank in on the cachet that jazz brings. — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
I really thought I was gonna have a straight gig. But these jazz musicians put their arms around me time and again… — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
I travel all the time. And as I go around the world, I try to learn a little something and not just… — Kurt Elling Around the world Copy Share Image
Part of my joy as a singer is to give gifts to people, and one way I try to connect to them… — Kurt Elling Gifts Copy Share Image
Romance is one of the things that most countries share, and I've noticed how different communities have their own ways of singing… — Kurt Elling Heartbreak Copy Share Image
In New York, the drummers rush for a reason - because there's so much energy crackling through everything in that city and… — Kurt Elling City Copy Share Image
The great jazz and jazz-influenced singers carry themselves with a certain panache and a certain elegance and, for lack of a better… — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
People just want to dig; they want to dance. They don't want to work all through the night, and neither do I.… — Kurt Elling Communication Copy Share Image
Karl Johnson, my first piano player at Milt Trenier's, he just swung really hard and gave me a sense of really belonging… — Kurt Elling Belonging Copy Share Image
You can never predict what the specific shape of your life is going to be, and you won't really know its general… — Kurt Elling God Copy Share Image
It helps me to learn things in different languages, even if it's just phonetically, and to make myself vulnerable to other audiences… — Kurt Elling Different languages Copy Share Image
Music is a physical expression that has a physical impact upon the listener. Sound travels in waves through the air. This is… — Kurt Elling Body Copy Share Image
There is an actor's responsibility in presenting the emotional content of the lyrics to an audience. But whether you do that in… — Kurt Elling Attention Copy Share Image
I think I make most of my decisions pretty organically. — Kurt Elling Decision making Copy Share Image
