Music is a physical expression that has a physical impact upon the listener. Sound travels in waves through the air. This is not abstract. This is scientific fact. And it makes physical contact with the eardrum… and with the heart… and with the rest of the body. – Kurt Elling
I try to sleep as much as I can. I drink a lot of water. I practice consistently and just try to be ready for the gig. – Kurt Elling
I travel all the time. And as I go around the world, I try to learn a little something and not just take up all the available air. – Kurt Elling
My strength is to communicate with an audience and to know what jazz singing is capable of. – Kurt Elling
You learn as much as you can from the people that you work with. That’s why you want to surround yourself with the heaviest people that you can possibly get to. – Kurt Elling
It’s a beautiful thing to have time in the world, as a singer and as a musician, to make friends with people of the musical caliber of a Tommy Smith, an Arturo Sandoval, a Richard Galliano, a Till Broenner. – Kurt Elling
If you’re going to be transparent, you’re going to have to let the music come that wants to come. – Kurt Elling
The musicians in Chicago gave me my vocation, but New York calls to a jazz musician, for sure. You want to test your mettle. – Kurt Elling
I’ve tried to learn as much as I can about the great jazz singers to understand what makes them important, vital artists, but there is always something more to learn. – Kurt Elling
You can start from any source material, and you can approach it with a jazz ear, and then it will become a jazz moment. – Kurt Elling
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. – Kurt Elling
I’m a guy who has more slapstick than Joe Cool moments in his day, so I’m not taking myself so seriously. – Kurt Elling
At a certain point, the graduate school thing didn’t work out, and that meant I was liberated. – Kurt Elling
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. – Kurt Elling
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. – Kurt Elling
Out in L.A., things relax even further than they do in Chicago. There’s such a looseness to it, and there’s a potentially refreshing advantage to that. – Kurt Elling