Brian McKnight

When it’s your chance to step up to the plate, just hit it out of the park, and everybody will forget about everything that came before.

I am a writer – that is what I am before being a performer or musician. I love waking up in the morning and then going to sleep that night with something that did not exist.

Most of the stuff I learned to play, I learned in high school. I had a band in high school, a jazz-fusion thing, and I was the keyboard player. I was interested in how the instruments worked and the theory behind playing with them.

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.

I kinda went back to that period between ’88 and ’94 where I felt like I was the most creative, without being hindered by powers that be. I was no longer going to try to hinder myself to what I thought was going to be on the radio.

It’s just exciting to be part of something that is brand-new.

I don’t worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about Jazz.

You have to understand the styles and it’s good to study those that came before us.

Well, for me it’s – music is the instrument of life.

Most jazz players work out their solos, at least to the extent that they have a very specific vocabulary.

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

In my family on my mother’s side we’re all church musicians first so I don’t remember a time when we weren’t doing something musical. My brothers and I sang in a little quartet, my aunts and uncles sang and my grandfather was a minister of music in our church, so walking and talking was like doing music for us.

You can have tone and technique but without originality you ain’t really nowhere. Gotta be original.

What have I got? No looks, no money, no education… just talent.

One shouldn’t be in the habit of quoting oneself.

For me, there wasn’t a line between working and getting paid or simply playing for fun.

Your humanity is your instrument.

Especially, I want my work-and the trios if possible-to sing.

The true value of this music lies in an artist’s individual creativity and that unique process of expression which is Jazz.

Our music artistry should not be disconnected from our lives or ourselves.

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.