I feel like I'm struggling now, and nearly every musician I know feels that way - even the most successful ones. I realize that I'm very lucky, but I still feel like I could be doing so much better.
Even in acting, when I watch an actor who I find to be so truthful in their craft, or a musician who gets up there and sings so truthfully - I like that.
The jazz musician's function is to feel.
I love working with different musicians in the studio, that's a real joy working with someone for the first time.
I thought "I don't need to reach out to my fans, I don't need to have that dialogue with them. " But as a musician, you have to constantly - especially since my music is not on the same level as my acting - you have to connect with your fans. I actually feel like I have developed friendships through Twitter, people that I've worked with I can kind of keep up with them. I've totally turned a corner. I get it. And Instagram.
I had gotten to know the music scene there, and just fell in love with it. I've lived there a little over four years now. There's a charm to Denton. The musicians in Denton are all very talented, but they're also all very accessible and very community-oriented.
There used to be a club in new york called Bradley's - I've never been there, it closed in the 80's - but I used to study with Junior Mance, and he would tell me about Bradley's. It was a very important place for a generation of jazz musicians in New York. It was really all about pianists there.
I never learned to verbalize an abstract musical concept. No thank you. The whole point of being a serious musician is to avoid verbalization whenever you can.
I'd rather give up my ears than my eyes, which might sound unusual for a musician.
The theatre is not the place for the musician. When the curtain is up the music interrupts the actor, and when it is down the music interrupts the audience.
You're a musician and you live and die by people responding to your music. It's a business just like anything else and if people don't like your music, that's kind of your problem.
That's one of the things about being married to a couple of musicians, I have got great iPods. That's what I was left with -- an iPod each.
It's amazing to hear proficient musicians play your music. It's a once in a lifetime kind of experience.
I never looked at being a musician any different than waking up one day and wanting to be an accountant or a lawyer.
Every musician I have ever heard has influenced me. I often find I emulate micro-aspects of an artist, and combine it to form something new and unique.
Even though it's become a really cliched thing to see musicians working for charity, it's still effective and it still has to be done.
I feel like what I'm best at is being a musician and a performer. I want to use that to help people who are good at starting nonprofits.
A musician knows hit material. It has to feel right. Everything has to feel in place. It fulfills you and it makes you feel good. You know it when you hear it.
The role of the musician is to go from concept to full execution. Put another way, it's to go from understanding the content of something to really learning how to communicate it and make sure it's well-received and lives in somebody else.
I think we musicians are emissaries. Every time we go before the public, we're there to make converts.