Charles Bradley Quotes

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

And I like to interpret music. So I think it's all interpretive.

My songs are a direct route into my brain and my heart.

I think there's always pieces of yourself that bleed into your character. That's inevitable.

Now, performing is second nature and I love every second of it. It is a very emotional thing when I can't play a song; maybe I'm hitting on something that I don't want to deal with. All of it is so personal. It is like therapy.

I don't have favourites, I think, when you play, you have to be like a prostitute, you have to love the piece you are playing. Even if you don't like it, you have to play it as if you would like it. Then you are a good interpreter.

I would spend hours absorbing every intonation, every inflection - how the singer would convey a sentiment and how it would sound coming out of their head. All of those things I very carefully watched and absorbed, and so I guess I was studying my whole life, although not in any sort of conventional way.

Songs suffer at the mercy of the performer.

Singing is my passion, my first love and the secret of my energy. Music to me is like finding my inner self, my soul. It gives me a great joy to see audiences enjoying with me. I have given my heart to singing. When I sing, I can feel romance in everything around me.

'Al Green Explores Your Mind' is really kind of a very personal record for me.

Because of things like 'The X Factor' and 'Autotune', the real art of communicating a song is not treasured any more. But singing other people's songs can be an intensely personal experience. I want the songs to be vessels that people fill with their own imagination, the same way that I fill it with my thoughts and feelings.

We have to put expressions in a song when we sing it.

At the end of the day, I am singing the composer's creation, and I follow the instructions given to me. What I feel may be a right take may not work for the composer or his vision on how he thinks the song should sound.

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

With acting, I get to escape into this character and embody it. With music it's like, "Hey guys, this is my diary, here's all my feelings."

Of course we all know when music's too much in the head, and we define our greatest players by the way they are able to communicate directly from their emotional selves.

Musicians are also interpretive artists and we are just as creative as painters and writers. We interpret in a way that expresses ourselves.

I think that soul, to me, is the theme of music that I connect with.

There are artists who delight listeners with their wild and daring individuality; there are others who uncover the written score with reverence. There are few who can do both.

I would say I am one of those people who just love to connect to people doing something I love. Can't lie, love a ballad, so expect big, powerful, emotive stuff from me!

One of the things I love about jazz music is that intent is first and execution is second. In classical music, execution is first and intent is second, meaning that you must first learn a piece before you can truly add your interpretation to it.

Music is a living art. You re-create it.

When you're just using words, you're limiting yourself to everyday casual speak. As soon as you start to sing, you can unlock the stuff that's underneath.

If you want to know me, listen to my music.

Music, I think, he makes me feel like music