Gladys Knight Quotes

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

I've sung a whole lot of jazz. It's my favorite style of music to sing. People don't realize it, because they're so accustomed to hearing me sing musical theater.

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

Intermittently in my concert format, I sing a little jazz, a little scatting.

That's the thing: There are so many art songs in jazz. It's a much more rich experience for the singer than people think.

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

One thing about playing the real jazz is that you can't count it.

I think jazz has given me freedom with my voice.

You have to go out and learn jazz by playing.

I have a big love for jazz music. The only thing I hated about singing with a jazz band was having to wear a gown to everything.

My strength is to communicate with an audience and to know what jazz singing is capable of.

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.

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

As I became an adult, I listened to a lot of jazz, to the ladies of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRae and Nina Simone. I loved that they each covered the same songs and interpreted them totally differently. I thought that was so cool. They could each paint their own picture of that moment.

Jazz scares me. I've witnessed so many incredible singers and jazz musicians. Pop and soul music have always been the things that I felt like I could do.

I do love singing. I wouldn't say I'm any good, but I definitely love it - especially jazz singing.

I put out a recording of me singing mostly jazz because I wanted people to know I'm coming from a jazz background.

Why can't jazz musicians just leave a melody alone?

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

I sounded like myself. People be saying I sound like Miles or Clifford Brown.

I have a fondness for jazz, particularly for jazz singers, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald all the way through the Sinatra era.

I listened to Billie Holiday a lot in order to learn to sing. She remains one of the extraordinary jazz singers. But my intent is to become my own voice, to be able to interpret these songs in my own way.

I think that's what I love about jazz is that you can do what you want, and you're allowed to mess up.

It's always difficult to define what jazz is or what jazz isn't. To me, the only definition that I can think of is it's music where a lot of different elements are played at the same time. The harmonic, the melodic... You're pushing the boundaries on every level. That could be true of rhythm and blues as well. I'm a musician.

I don't think I've ever been true to jazz. There's always a kind of jazz element to what I do. There are a very few genres that I haven't tried out, really, in what I've been doing. As a jazz musician, you can kind of mess about with things with a certain level of musicianship, which helps.