Quotes from Kurt Elling

I've got more low notes than I had when I started.

I spend upwards of 200 nights a year on the road.

I try to stick with things that I can sing with honesty.

There is an actor's responsibility in presenting the emotional content of the lyrics to an audience. But whether you do that in a straightforward fashion or an ironic fashion or a blase fashion is all about opportunities, and singers are missing opportunities as artists if they don't pay attention to the lyric.

Romance is one of the things that most countries share, and I've noticed how different communities have their own ways of singing about love and heartbreak.

You don't know what bravery is until you overcome fear.

My intellect was quickened at divinity school, and my abilities to discern were strengthened, and that's always valuable.

Chicago has a burly, action-oriented but still self-assured and relaxed confidence to its stride. The city has a lot of wide-open space and all the possibilities that suggests. There's a lot of horizontal grandeur here.

I think I make most of my decisions pretty organically.

It must be a hellish thing to know what's possible in music, to be hearing things all the time and not have an appropriate outlet for them.

I like the power and versatility of a big band and how an orchestra can vary the dynamics from very loud to very quiet, and SNJO covers those bases.

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.

The singer is always an ambassador of music.

People want to have access to jazz because it has a vibe that's very strong.

Audiences have taught me how to sing better and entertain better.

I didn't arrive on the scene until after Jaco Pastorius had passed, but 'Three Views of a Secret' is a long-time favourite of mine.