Quotes from Kurt Elling

If you're going to be transparent, you're going to have to let the music come that wants to come.

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.

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.

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.

I've tried to educate myself in the world and what's beautiful and what has meaning and is lasting. Then I just follow my intuition and see how it fits.

I'm a guy who has more slapstick than Joe Cool moments in his day, so I'm not taking myself so seriously.

In New York, the drummers rush for a reason - because there's so much energy crackling through everything in that city and so many collisions at a highly accelerated rate.

I listened to a lot of King Crimson back in the day.

Sometimes, with vocalese, I'm dealing with something, a great solo from the past, which is so iconic I can't presume to change it or mess with it.

You work very hard on the lyrics. Getting them to fit the contours of improvised melodies.

While I revel in the memories of my own Grammy moment, I also know how it feels to walk away empty-handed.

I've got enough miles under my belt to know that whatever you envision in your mind, even if it comes true, will only keep a shape in the most general way.

I'm one of the culprits who keeps turning stuff around, shaking up original tunes and trying to stand the canon on its ear. But sometimes, you just need to sing the song.

You can start from any source material, and you can approach it with a jazz ear, and then it will become a jazz moment.

Each of the CDs prior to 'Flirting With Twilight' were more like roller-coaster rides.

You can never predict what the specific shape of your life is going to be, and you won't really know its general shape until, God willing, you're advanced in years and you have the time and opportunity to look back in a coherent way and see what your life was about.

I'm a jazz musician, and I really wanted to not miss an opportunity to have the full connection to jazz.

You don't want to make records so you can win a Grammy. You make records because you want to be a musician.

I was very lucky that more experienced musicians allowed me to caterwaul until I figured out what it was really about.

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.

There are incredible musicians around the world.

I couldn't do what I do without the encouragement and influence of the musicians I played with in Chicago.

Sometimes people have this notion that improvisation is simply intuitive leaping into the unknown.

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