Brian McKnight

The fans dictate to you when you’re done!

I was brought up to be a gentleman. That means you know how to walk, talk and dress the part.

I watch my contemporaries, and they love to live in the studio and I don’t. I have a life. I treat it as a 9-to-5. I try to create something new every day, and then I get on with my life.

I’m creating music – it doesn’t matter if anyone else likes it.

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.

A lot of musicians put diamonds on things to show they had money. I on the other had felt that a Rolex Daytona showed I had style and I didn’t need to be flashy.

The hippest thing you can do is not play at all. Just listen.

Of course there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

Inspiration comes from tunes you play, other musicians and your own imagination.

I’m using the insides of sounds to move around in a very subtle way which, I think, ends up being inevitable.

Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

Learn the tunes by playing the masters, learn expression by playing yourself.

When you hear somebody with balls, that’s me.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.

It’s a matter of who would be right for each song. Mickey Hart for ‘All We Need is An Island’ – he’s the only guy I know who has Tahitian drums and every kind of drum on the planet.

There are four qualities essential to a great Jazzman: taste, courage, individuality and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music.

Bird said he worked as dishwasher at Onyx Club on 52nd St. in the early 1940s just to hear Art Tatum play.

A Jazz musician is supposed to find his voice, find his niche and do his thing.

As far back as I can remember, singing was in my blood. My parents loved music, and I loved to sing. I was scatting at an early age.