I find early jazz to be the most revolutionary music of its time.
I'm a great jazz fan.
What I believe to be jazz is constructed and improvised music which is in the air right now. But I don't think that's most people's definition of jazz, you know? We don't know what we're talking about, because we don't know the definition.
Kenny G is not real jazz. I don't even think Wynton Marsalis is real jazz. I don't think Harry Connick Jr. is real jazz. If there is such a thing as real jazz, The Lounge Lizards is real jazz, Henry Threadgill is real jazz, Bill Frisell is real jazz, you know?
When I heard Monk in person in 1955, he was playing with a quartet in a small club. The place was full of musicians, but there was no public at all.
As a very small girl, I listened to Charlie Parker and loved him and Max Roach and people like that.
Jazz is rhythm and meaning.
I think somewhere in the back of my mind I've always wanted to make a whole swing album.
When I came to New York after high school in 1959 and started to meet musicians, 'Hot House' was like a standard jam session tune.
Jazz music creates so many phenomenal figures.
Be-bop wasn't developed in any deliberate way.
Jazz is a beautiful word. I love it.
Early '90s, I was big, big into Sinatra. I was in college. I was fascinated.
I grew up listening to John Coltrane and jazz, so they were subtle influences. I sometimes think about doing some kind of weird jazz record, but I don't know... It's on my list of things to do. I don't want to have to then go promote it.
Nat King Cole - I listen to him a lot.
There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.
Jazz music is the power of now.
Back in the day, being a young, inspired bass player, I started to gravitate toward jazz fusion. I almost would have called myself an elitist. I got to the point where, for a little bit there, I was more interested in instrumental music.
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.
See, we started out with a foundation of blues. But then we added people like Miles Davis and John Coltrane to the mix and gave rock n' roll a much more complex structure. It made it possible to play more than three chords.
Grover Washington was my main influence, and when I went to college, I started listening to more of the jazz masters like Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, and John Coltrane.
I love to sing old Motown songs to myself, or some Patti Smith Edith Piaf or Billie Holiday. That gets me in the mood for singing.
When I was 12, I began listening to John Coltrane and I developed a love for jazz, which I still have more and more each year.
I've always wanted to record a jazz record. I did one in the '70s with Barbara Carroll. It's been a journey.
To sing with Frank Sinatra in any capacity at all is overwhelming.
