There's a spiritual complement to any attempt at transposing a commitment to humanity through music or art.

Music is a physical expression that has a physical impact upon the listener. Sound travels in waves through the air. This is not abstract. This is scientific fact. And it makes physical contact with the eardrum... and with the heart... and with the rest of the body.

It must be a hellish thing to know what's possible in music, to be hearing things all the time and not have an appropriate outlet for them.

You can start from any source material, and you can approach it with a jazz ear, and then it will become a jazz moment.

Man, I just feel so fortunate to be a jazz musician at all. I have a hard time thinking of it any other way. It's such a fulfilling vocation. I love it.

I think my intention was there, and my love for the music was apparent. And there are very few singers who get up and desire to take the kinds of risks that jazz musicians routinely need to be taking.