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"I like a very dark house, just black. I sit there and just think. Once I'm still and quiet inside, I'll begin. It's very personal; it has to be. One song may be Bach, the next blues, a song from TV, or a nursery rhyme or jazz piece."
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"I was exposed to jazz early on."
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Personal Development
"I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences."
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Personal Development
"For years, Jazz At The Philharmonic albums were the only ones of their kind."
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Personal Development
"I'm not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense."
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Personal Development
"The blues is the foundation, and it's got to carry the top. The other part of the scene, the rock 'n' roll and the jazz, are the walls of the blues."
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Personal Development
"It's something that jazz has gotten away from, and it's unfortunate. Players aren't physical anymore."
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Personal Development
"And I used to listen to a lot of jazz."
Author Name
Personal Development
"The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point."
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Personal Development
"All the classic jazz players all sang and a lot of 'em sang blues."
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Personal Development
"One of the things I like about jazz, kid, is I don't know what's going to happen next. Do you?"
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"My biggest musical influences are probably my parents."
Parents
"I did the one concert, and I was not bitten by the conducting bug, and I thought I was done, but then the phone started to ring, and gradually, over time, I started conducting more and more. Now a third of my performances are with orchestras."
Time
"It's not that I don't love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible."
Love
"My father was a very disciplined singer who worked hard at his craft, and I was around that growing up."
Father
"I want to write a book of poetry, as well as children's stories."
Poetry
"Miles Davis turned his back to the audience when he came out on stage, and he offended people. But, he wasn't there to entertain; he was all about the music. I kind of do that."
Music
"I don't want anything to get in the way of me and my singing. I want my mind as clear as possible."
Mind
"But, if there's any aspect of my career that needs attention, it's writing."
Attention
"Then I left that school and I went to Cerritos College, which was in southern California; they had one of the best big band programs in the country at the time."
Time
"Then when I was in grammar school I played the clarinet, and then, after clarinet I played the flute in college orchestra - besides singing in the college chorus and things like that."
College
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