What I was interested in was conveying an emotional message, which means using everything you've got inside you sometimes to barely make a note, or if you have to strain to sing, you sing.

Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.

It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live.

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.

Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It's like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can't be found on any instrument. That's like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world.

You have to work at everything. You've got to make it work.