Dianne Reeves Quotes

I really do love bluesy-jazzy music, so I love Etta James, B.B. King and Billie Holiday. I love that they have soul in their voices - I think that's something important is having.

Sometimes you have to listen to a CD over and over before you really get it, but as soon as I heard the first note of R&B artist Chrisette Michele's debut CD, I was blown away. Her voice is playful but pretty, light but strong - the woman's got soul.

I love inspirational R&B, like Mary J. Blige and Jennifer Hudson. I want to do that. That kind of music stays with you.

In fact, I wouldn't really call this a Gospel album, I call it more an inspirational album.

Like all soul singers, I grew up singing in church but sometimes I would leave early and sit in the car listening to gospel band, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Hearing their lead singer Clarence made me connect the idea of church and show business and see how I could make a career singing music that stirred the soul.

I buy everything India Arie, just because she's such a positive person, and I just love her music. Her music's so soulful... I think Kanye West is a genius musically.

You have to have a little soul in your singing. The kind of soul that's in the spirituals. That's why I'd like to include spiritual material in the sets I do. It's a part of my life.

When I hear a singer, I want them to be passionate and intense, and soul singers like Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett always seemed to do exactly that.

I'm an old spirit, and my voice tends to be kind of heavy and loud. I've been referenced as 'a young Aretha.'

Blues was made for the recessed.

George Jones is country soul. Once this kind of music sits in you and you take it all, it reaches down into your soul. George Jones to me was one of the most soulful singers of any genre. That drew me to his music. He knew how to present a song without really thinking about it.

God bless Ray Charles. It was such an honor to meet him and sing with him and actually just to watch him sing from just two feet away.

People have this perception of soul music of somebody shouting.

I always loved Sam Cooke, because he seemed very versatile. He sang gospel, soul, blues, pop music.

Oh boy, I grew up hearing Sam Cooke, The Soul Stirrers, Mahalia Jackson, sitting on Mahalia Jackson's lap in my dad's church.

As a child I always wanted to be a singer. The music my mother played in the house moved me - Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Mahalia Jackson. It was truly spiritual. It made you understand what God was. We are all spirits. We get depressed. But music makes you want to live. I know my music has saved my life.

I'm a big fan of skilled singers. Some of my favorites are Cee-Lo Green, Donny Hathaway, James Fauntleroy, and Kim Burrell.

With the R&B, gospel feel that 'Sparkle' has, that opens the door for my fans to be more accepting of that sound and also for me to try it.

I think the most-played record in our house was the 'Big Chill' Soundtrack - so Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Otis Redding. I think that's where I got my love for a good hook, a good soul hook - really smooth and warm and from the heart.

When I heard Aretha, I could feel her emotional delivery so clearly. It came from down deep within. That's what I wanted to do.

The type of music that I love to sing would have to be more bluesy and jazzy and more soul-like 'cause I love to belt when it comes to singing, so I guess bigger songs are what I lean more towards.

I think that one of Elvis' charms was that he could sing almost any kind of music. I am sure that in his heart, which I don't know what was there, but just from his singing I could feel that he was very partial to gospel music.

I think I'm a soulful singer.

I've done gospel songs on every album.

Listen to any cantor, any good hazan, sing and you can hear a little bit of Ray Charles going on.