Brian McKnight

I think they can co-exist. You don’t have to put one down for another. I’ve been bitten by the acting bug, and where it takes me, it won’t take away from the music.

He knows I rip him off every day. He’s the godfather for me. Nobody can say they aren’t influenced by what Stevie Wonder has done.

I’ve worked with jazz artists, country artists, classical artists, pop artists. I never wanted there to be categories, because when I was a kid there weren’t.

I’ll always write music. Whether I release a record, whether I let the public hear it or not, I’m always writing music.

I think social media has given everyone a voice. Social media makes everyone a celebrity on some level. I think that diminishes the power of an artist who bases their trade on their talent, that’s one of the downfalls. But the good thing is that you can connect with your fans all the time.

I keep these songs in my head until I get behind the microphone. I never spend more than 30 or 40 minutes singing the vocal or it will sound mechanical. There are always mistakes, but it’s about feeling more than being perfect.

Jazz is one of the least learnable art forms.

Just allow your feelings to go with the music and you’ll find yourself carried along by it fairly quickly.

I think when my brother (Claude who founded vocal sextet Take Six) got his deal and I saw him on the Grammys that was when I said, ‘oh, you know what? If he can do it then maybe I can do too’ and that’s when I really focused on trying to make it in this business.

It’s up to the individual to keep up with the times.

I don’t believe music can be free unless it has something to be free from.

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a Jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

I listen to all kinds of songs. There’s something to be learned from every type of music and from the one making it, whether it’s pop or jazz or hip-hop.

It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of Jazz and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902.

Life is not about finding our limitations, it’s about finding our infinity.

Jazz goes into my coffee in the morning, in my wine at night.

And ultimately the people who produce my records, they know that they’re here to serve the purpose of me expressing who I am at this period of time and augmenting that or pulling it forward and I love that process.

Jazz can only enhance the Classical side and Classical can only enhance the Jazz side.

I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player and a special award in 1961 for quietness.

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.