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,… — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Man, I just feel so fortunate to be a jazz musician at all. I have a hard time thinking of it any other way.… — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
You can start from any source material, and you can approach it with a jazz ear, and then it will become a jazz moment. — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
I don't really have a more intellectualized approach. After the fact, I can sure talk about stuff a lot - but when I make… — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
I think my intention was there, and my love for the music was apparent. And there are very few singers who get up and… — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
I've worked with a number of big bands, but there's nothing in life like the Basie band. — 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
The great jazz and jazz-influenced singers carry themselves with a certain panache and a certain elegance and, for lack of a better word, self-confidence. — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
You work very hard on the lyrics. Getting them to fit the contours of improvised melodies. — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
A lot of people are put off by the idea of scat singing. Either that or it's something to be made fun of. — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
You want to be doing your best work whatever field of the arts you're in because your life's going to be over all too… — Kurt Elling Copy Share Image
