Chet Faker Quotes

My mother had a gorgeous singing voice, and she'd play these amazing vinyls. My favorite was 'But Not for Me,' on the 1954 album 'Chet Baker Sings.'

Dianne Reeves, a famous jazz singer, would be my biggest influence.

One doesn't have to scat to be a jazz singer.

It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me.

The first time I heard a Billie Holiday record, I thought, 'What's so great about Billie Holiday?'

My favorite singer to this day is Nat King Cole. I've tried to emulate his phrasing. It is so absolutely beautiful to listen to his lovely voice.

One of my biggest musical influences is definitely Ella Fitzgerald as a vocalist.

One of the things that I love about Sarah Vaughan is that she was always very current.

Exene taught me how to bend my notes when I sing. That's her style. And I learned that from her.

I studied and sang lot of jazz when I was growing up. I think that plays a little bit into some of the things I do vocally, notes that I pick in chords.

Diana Krall knocks me out. I like jazz and I like her simple approach.

I am not a jazz singer. I wouldn't place myself on that footing. I wouldn't even enter that arena.

It is jazz music that called me to be a musician and I have always sang the songs that moved me the most. Singers, like Frank Sinatra and myself, we interpret the songs that we like. Not unlike a Shakespearean actor that goes back to the greatest words ever written, we go back to the greatest songs.

When somebody turned me on to a Coltrane record around seventh grade, I took up saxophone.

My great hero is Billie Holiday, and I've always wanted to do an album of standards with a piano-led quartet.

I had no desire to become a singer until I heard Billie Holiday. The first time I heard her on a record, it was a revelation. She sounded like a woman singing about herself.

The most common misconception about me is that I'm basically a jazz singer.

Every good gospel singer you can hear is a scat singer; they're just using different syllables. There are a lot of jazz singers out there, and more coming out of the churches.

As for my band, well, my mentors were Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, and no one had a band more smartly dressed than Duke.

But once you strip that down, you realize it's all about a voice, like a Norah Jones - that's inspiring to me.

Probably to me the greatest singer, female voice, is Billie Holiday. And one of the most moving for me, I don't know why - maybe it's nostalgia, maybe because my life is one of constant partying, whatever.

I've often cringed when I heard myself described as a jazz singer. I've always thought of myself as a jazz vocalist.

No one in the world can beat Ella Fitzgerald as a riff singer.

I loved Art Tatum! And, through him, and other different jazz musicians, I actually found my technique.

Listening to Nat Cole prompted me to sing sentimental songs with distinct diction.