Leslie Odom Jr. Quotes

Musicians from the beginning of time have been there to express the mood and the musical feelings in the air for whatever's going on in that particular culture. It's the greatest joy as a musician to be able to translate that, be part of something and watch the scenery around you.

I learned by listening to other people sing and doing impressions of them. And there are things no one can ever teach you, like phrasing. By listening to Sinatra, for instance - you felt that everything he sang had happened in his life.

What I've learned how to do as I've gotten older is to take all of the information that I have, and push it aside, and try to distill each song into an emotional theme. The hardest thing that I've ever had to learn how to do in playing music is use the sound of my instrument to create an emotional effect.

I think that a song, when it works, never mind a piece of long form music, even a song is something that speaks to itself but has a language all of its own, ideally.

A composer knows that music is written by human beings for human beings and that music is a continuation of life, not something separated from it.

There's not only emotion in the way you sing but also in what you sing. That way I can compensate it.

I learned, too, how it was possible with the help of the picture and action to transform an apparently insignificant violin passage into an incident, and to lift a simple horn call into a thing of stupendous significance by means of scenic emphasis.

My favorite song is called 'Reachout.' There are so many different stories told in that song. I think anyone who listens to it will gather a different meaning, but each answer is true. I also like the sound of it, period - there are a lot of classical influences.

It's very strange when people get so focused on what a song means, what actual events inspired a song. That gets people really excited for some reason... But that's what's great about music - however people interpret it, whatever they see, is what I want to be there for them.

I believe in working with songs that have personal value for me.

So when I'm playing, I'm sort of painting a feeling in the air.

I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.

Much as I adore the melodies, I choose a song for what it has to say.

As a singer, you have to bring the soul to the song.

During 'Torches,' I was more concerned with communicating the spirit of the song than the actual lyrics.

I feel music-making is more like a psychological game; each film has its own colour that needs to be identified and addressed.

I feel like emotional content is the most important of any song, for any artist.

Music is the tonal analogue of emotive life.

Cartoonist Walt Disney has made the twentieth century's only important contribution to music. Disney has made use of music as language.

Music is truly love itself, the purest, most ethereal language of the emotions, embodying all their changing colors in every variety of shading and nuance.

Faith and joy are the ascensive forces of song.

I love music. I do play. It's like mathematics, and it's also emotional. It's nice to play, for no other reason than just to play.

Technically, I'm not a guitar player, all I play is truth and emotion.

For me, singing was always about the lyrics. I'm hopeless at singing songs that don't have a core.

Often for me, if I hear a song I know, it clicks for me and I hear it in a different way and I think, "I could sing that song. I've got something to say about that song. Wanting to connect with an audience and wanting them to rethink songs; it is actually important to do songs they're familiar with. Also, I love those songs. In a way, I think I've changed people's perceptions of what a cabaret show like this could be.