Quotes from Dianne Reeves

Oh my gosh, I love Jon Hendricks.

When I was in junior high school, I knew I really wanted to sing.

I grew up with great mentors in my life who helped me become the singer I am today.

I loved singing something like 'I've Got My Eye On You' when it's really about the FBI. It turns a love song into something else!

I love to create something new every night onstage; that makes a big difference.

I think the only way for you to grow and evolve is to keep listening, keep moving forward, keep jumping in and trying to experience.

I'm a chameleon. When you put me in certain soils, musically speaking, I will be in that place.

My friend Harry Belafonte is an activist and musician, an extraordinary man who has dedicated his life to human rights. He taught me the power of words and that music can be used to heal and educate people.

I feel proud of my journey. I wouldn't change it.

When I first heard Nina Simone, her naked truth shocked me. Whenever she sang, it felt like lightning bolts in my soul. Every song was like a movie, a unique and very different vignette.

When I worked with my uncle, I loved the fact that jazz music demanded that you use your own unique approach.

I look back at Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and especially Betty Carter, whom I admire the most, and I say, OK, they set a standard of excellence. I listen to them not for what they are doing, but to study where they are coming from because, for me, jazz is life experience.

People think jazz music is all standards and the Great American Songbook. But it's really about the sensibility, the feel you bring to the music.

Jazz musicians have always taken the standards of their time and performed them with a jazz sensibility.

I listen to music all the time, and a lot of the things I cover are the standards of my time, and they work for me.

I never wanted to do anything else, really. I left home at an early age trying to find my voice, my niche in music.

I had really great art classes. Really great art teachers. Arts played a very important role in having a place to express yourself uniquely.

The biggest thing is, when I was coming up, the thing that made you wonderful was your uniqueness. People celebrated that.

I've dated a few musicians in my life, and it's kind of always been that way for me. You unite through creativity and share that process and more together.

Now, jazz institutions are more readily available for young people, but for me, the institutions were the bands that I was in. When I worked with Clark Terry, that was the beginning of school for me, and Harry Belafonte and Sergio Mendes, they were all my universities.

I knew what the story behind 'Dreams' was. It was about Stevie Knicks' relationship. But when I sing it, it's about sharing some sage advice with somebody.

I came up at a time in the late '60s, early '70s where music was without boundaries. You'd go into a music store, and the music was in alphabetical order. I hadn't heard of that word 'genre.'

I come from a family of storytellers. My grandmother was great at telling stories, and my mother was an amazing storyteller.

I have one closet that's just shoes. The woman go, 'Amen,' and the men go, 'Oh my God.' It's color-coordinated from the ceiling to the floor, from evening to casual.