Quotes About Music

I don't listen to much modern composition.

But I can't really say there is too much modern music that I'm blown away by at this moment.

Songs bring us into connection with each other. When they resonate, when we're in resonance, singing together, we become one for that 3 1/2 or four minutes the song lasts. It takes away that isolated loneliness that modern life is so full of.

I find as much inspiration from the forerunners of jazz as I do the modern-day innovators of jazz.

I think, in a lot of ways, hip-hop is interesting to me because it's like the modern-day folk music.

I think in the world of indie music there's this sort of false modesty.

There can never be another Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi they are in different league.

I simply admire Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar.

My favourites are Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi. They are the four legends. I have worked with them in hundreds of songs.

Rock in the mainstream culture has lost a lot of its mojo.

The cover of Mojo, that was good for us.

I'm the mold that grunge was grown in.

I never liked feeling like the world needed to have labels on everything, whether it's people or categories of music. I think everyone should be what they want to be, and you shouldn't have to look a certain way in order to fit this mold or that mold.

We live in a society of triviality, and my music and what I'm about kind of starts to break that mold and adds more meaning and dialogue to hip hop.

As a listener, we're looking for that person who kind of excites the molecules within us - who knows how to tell the story that resonates deeply to our core and almost prompts us into action. Fats Waller has been that person for decades. When people need a lift, sometimes they go to him. I know I do.

My mom has every issue of 'Billboard' I've ever been in.

My dad and my mom were big Nat King Cole fans, so they had everything he did.

I started busking when I was 24. I was living with Mom and Dad. I'd broken up with my girlfriend and didn't know what I was doing with my life, and I thought, 'Well, this is the last shot - I'm going busking, and let's see what happens.'

I don't want just 25-year-old girls watching my show. I want Grandma, Grandpa and Mom and Dad and the kids. I just want everyone to hear good music.

My mom and dad sang in the church choir. They also had a local group. They loved music, especially my dad.

I guess I'd like people to be able to forget a lot of things and just enjoy the beauty of harmony and melody for a moment.

I shall think of Freddie Mercury every day - maybe for a moment, maybe for longer.

The three great moments of my life had to be the concerts of Ellington in 1938, Dizzy in '48, and Ella in '52.

My main thing is I just want to share as much hope and happiness as possible for music. If I can share as many moments and help people believe in themselves... if I can do that, then I'll feel like my job is done.