Brian McKnight Quotes

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one's own.

Jazz is letting everybody do his or her thing with the music.

I don't follow any system. All the laws you can lay down are only so many props to be cast aside when the hour of creation arrives.

It was liberating to do comedy. It felt like playing in a jazz band.

I always say that I'm at my best when there's no example of what the character is supposed to be. I thrive when there's not much and I have to create it.

There is spontaneity to my work.

I actually found not having a routine was inspiration.

When I'm making a song, I try not to think about audience or genres. It's free-flowing. Natural.

Jazz has a lot to do with being very present. You know the structure, then you flow through it.

All of my solos were improvised initially - I would go in and get my bearings and see what I came up with.

Jazz is about freedom within discipline.

I couldn't say there is a formula to songwriting. Each time is a unique experience.

That is a big danger, losing your inspiration. When I work in film and television I try to do each take a little differently. I never want to do the same thing twice, because then you're not being spontaneous, you're just recreating something.

When you're an artist, all you're trying to do is self-express.

Some people wish above all to conform to the rules, I wish only to render what I can hear. There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law.

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

The apparatus has to serve our improbability and improvisation. Being good and playing the songs is not enough.

Comedy is the ultimate truth. Jazz is hitting the notes that that no one else would hit, and comedy is saying words that no one else would say.

We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

I don't want ever to be guilty of what my critics claim: doing formula without original elements.

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.

A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations.

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.