Kurt Elling Quotes
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I think I make most of my decisions pretty organically.
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Audiences have taught me how to sing better and entertain better.
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Sometimes people have this notion that improvisation is simply intuitive leaping into the unknown.
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You learn as much as you can from the people that you work with. That's why you want to surround yourself with the heaviest people that you can possibly get to.
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I hope to be at the top of my game when I'm 65 or 70. I don't want to reach my peak at 29. Not that I'm holding back anything, but there's a bunch of junk I don't know.
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It's a lovely thing to have people in any circumstance appreciate your work.
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I'm a jazz musician, and I really wanted to not miss an opportunity to have the full connection to jazz.
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With a smaller setting, you have a lot more freedom and flexibility within a given moment, but not necessarily the velocity you have with a big band.
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At a certain point, the graduate school thing didn't work out, and that meant I was liberated.
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That's the thing: There are so many art songs in jazz. It's a much more rich experience for the singer than people think.
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I can't say New York's home, but I've made a lot of friends, and I'm developing a map of what cats are here and where they play, and as a singer, you're always looking for projects that tie things in emotionally and intuitively with your life.
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If you start to dwell on your pain, the amount of pain will increase.
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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.
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I remember seeing Tony Bennett on television. He was the only guy in the orchestra who was wearing a white tux, and I thought, 'That would be good. To be the only man on stage in a white jacket.'
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We all know that jazz demands a cultivation of the mind.
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I travel all the time. And as I go around the world, I try to learn a little something and not just take up all the available air.
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'Man in the Air' was an experience in exercise.
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I really thought I was gonna have a straight gig. But these jazz musicians put their arms around me time and again and said, 'Hey, young fella, you're one of us. Come with us.' That's a big deal when you're young and looking for your way in the world.
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My intellect was quickened at divinity school, and my abilities to discern were strengthened, and that's always valuable.
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It's easy to get tired of religious fundamentalists. They're such a bore. They have no sense of mystery. It's a drag, man.
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I don't really have a more intellectualized approach. After the fact, I can sure talk about stuff a lot - but when I make decisions, I really just follow what sounds good to me.
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When improvisation is properly applied, it is compositional thinking, sped way up.
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If you're going to be transparent, you're going to have to let the music come that wants to come.
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I had everything to gain by giving it everything I could.