Even in a world with much sadness, at its essence, life is beautiful.
Dianne Reeves
Go out into the world with your passion and love for what you do, and just never give up.
Being from Colorado is, to me, very, very special. I'm just very thankful to be here. I'm also thankful to be a part of the history of this state.
I think the only way for you to grow and evolve is to keep listening, keep moving forward, keep jumping in and trying to experience.
When I first heard Nina Simone, her naked truth shocked me. Whenever she sang, it felt like lightning bolts in my soul. Every song was like a movie, a unique and very different vignette.
I never called myself a jazz singer. I just call myself a vocalist because I love to sing all kinds of things.
I have one closet that's just shoes. The woman go, 'Amen,' and the men go, 'Oh my God.' It's color-coordinated from the ceiling to the floor, from evening to casual.
I never wanted to do anything else, really. I left home at an early age trying to find my voice, my niche in music.
It's funny: I look at songs, and I guess they each tell a story, and the different songs talk about different things. But they're unified by the rhythm underneath and the way that we decided to arrange and play them.
Too many people judge a singer like Beyonce by what they see on the surface. Knowing the musicians she's worked with and how she works, I have a lot of respect for her.
Each project that you do is something you believe in for that moment in time.
I really enjoy going out with my jazz group. That's something that I don't ever want to stop doing.
Art is a direct reflection of the life you live. What you experience comes out in your work.
The biggest thing is, when I was coming up, the thing that made you wonderful was your uniqueness. People celebrated that.
Lizz Wright, we call her lovingly 'Amazing Grace.' She has a folk and gospel kind of approach to the music, and she writes beautiful lyrics and songs. She's like this balm that is really full and very rich and deep.
People think jazz music is all standards and the Great American Songbook. But it's really about the sensibility, the feel you bring to the music.
I remember my grandmother used to always say, 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket.' But when I realized that music was inside of me, I decided I'm putting all my eggs in one basket.
My life has been going in ways I never could have dreamed of - doing the closing celebration for the Olympic Games and being appointed the creative chair for jazz at the L.A. Philharmonic. So I've just decided I'll go with my flow and be very prepared.
In any event, I'm proud to wear the badge of jazz vocalist if that's what people want to call me; but at the same time, there are many other things I like to do.
I come from a family of musicians.
I never looked or really believed that music should be categorized into particular genres.
I grew up listening to all kinds of music. When I came up, you would hear people like Marvin Gaye talking about Sarah Vaughan. You would go to a show and see Ella Fitzgerald performing the music of the Beatles.
In high school, we had a really great jazz program that I finally was able to be a part of. They only wanted instrumentalists; they didn't want any singers. But I made my way in, and I remember the conductor of the band wrote a lot of arrangements and asked me what I wanted to sing.
When I was in junior high school, I knew I really wanted to sing.
Your voice is not your instrument. Your voice is the character that you build, your innermost feelings, the things that you want to say, and your instrument is the vehicle that you use to carry the message.
I listen to music all the time, and a lot of the things I cover are the standards of my time, and they work for me.
I think jazz is the foundation for a lot of great musicians, and then after that, you know, it's this broad expression of things that really have influenced and addressed your life.
My records are one thing. My live performances are something totally different because they're very improvised performances.
I love to create something new every night onstage; that makes a big difference.
The music we do is weaved together through stories and life experiences. When people come to hear us, I hope they are are uplifted and that we give them a lot to take home.
Oh my gosh, I love Jon Hendricks.
I've always had really wonderful people around me. But early on, I remember I would walk into a session or go do something with some musicians, and they viewed me, basically, as their chick singer.
Herb Wong was an incredible man. We met when I was performing with Clark Terry at the Wichita Jazz Festival around 1974.
I had a few celebrity crushes when I was growing up, including Eddie Kendricks from the Temptations. And I loved Marvin Gaye - I thought he was everything and instantly fell for his voice.
I feel proud of my journey. I wouldn't change it.
Singers like Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar are very conscious of what's going on around them, and they're waking up lot of young people with that knowledge. They bring their enlightenment to the world; the world that is buying their records.
I love New York City because there's something to do 24/7, something that will make you see things in a whole different light. Like they say, it's the city that never sleeps.
I loved singing something like 'I've Got My Eye On You' when it's really about the FBI. It turns a love song into something else!
When I worked with my uncle, I loved the fact that jazz music demanded that you use your own unique approach.
Art and culture and all of these things - they really matter. They shape your individuality.
I always have a little bit of Brazil and New Orleans in my band.
My musical selections are a reflection of how I grew up. Because, back then, you could see Miles Davis and Ravi Shankar on the same stage. And nobody thought anything of it, other than the fact that it was great music.
I've always respected and taken care of my instrument.
Jazz musicians have always taken the standards of their time and performed them with a jazz sensibility.
I did a project called 'Sing The Truth,' which was a lot of fun. It started out being a celebration of the music of Nina Simone, and it was me and Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo.
My musicians know all of my music, and so that makes for something different.
I had aunts who played piano and sang and also were entertainers, so music was very much a part of my life.
When I found out how music made me feel and how my singing made other people feel, that's when I decided this is what I wanted to do.
I think that when I started singing, I didn't know what I wanted to do; I only knew what I didn't want to do.
My mother would say, 'Stay ready so you don't have to get ready.' I spent a lot of my early years preparing for beautiful moments that have unfolded in my life so far.
