Kurt Elling Quotes

Sometimes you need to stand with your nose to the window and have a good look at jazz. And I've done that on many occasions.

Jazz is a constant theme in my life. My father is a jazz pianist, and from an early age I have been surrounded by it.

I always tell people that, just to be a bad jazz musician, you have to be better than most musicians. The worst jazz musicians are normally better than most musicians, because you have to know so much.

Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music.

The first thing is, jazz is one of the few things to let you know that there is a God and there is a creation.

I've met a lot of jazz musicians in my day, and they're all funny.

My dad is a big jazz fan, and that was the reason I first got into jazz.

People who don't do jazz think it's black magic. But really, it's just a matter of getting used to it. It's fun to gamble. The trick is not to fall back on the things you've done before.

I never studied jazz technically; I just know and love the music.

I understood jazz, I understood how it worked. That's what I apply to everything.

I wanted to be a jazz musician.

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

If you don't already know about jazz music, how would you be exposed? How would get an opportunity to find out if it spoke to you? If you get exposed to it enough, you might find a taste for it.

I have to plead basic ignorance of most new jazz artists here.

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

My father is a jazz musician, so I grew up hearing jazz. My parents loved it, but I didn't like it. It went on for too long. Yes, I had certain teachers that really inspired me, like Danny Barker, and John Longo. And I had no idea that I would have any impact on jazz.

I just don't know anything about jazz, really. I've never really listened to it, but I'd definitely like to discover more about it.

I think jazz is a wonderful learning tool.

When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins.

I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.

If he's a true symphony artist, he knows better than that because he knows that the only truly creative musician is the jazz musician.

I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level.

I still love the whole history of jazz. The old things sound better than ever.

At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music.