Brian McKnight

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.

I don’t care how small the game. I want to win.

I’m not worried about legacy. I don’t even know what that actually means. I don’t think anyone knows. I hope at some point in my career when my name is mentioned, someone will say “Oh yeah he has a good song!” I’d be happy with that.

There’s no substitute to being successful on an actual chart.

I thought that true love was a just fairytale but I have it and it’s pretty amazing.

I kind of hate the fact that people are always trying to put you into a category. I hate walls, and I hate boundaries. I don’t like that. I listen to everything.

Everybody did something. It was very entertaining. We had a lot of fun. Lot of fun. And there was no segregation, that I could see. I never saw any.

Our music is generally the music I would play way back when I was in the record business. So I’ll play World Waiting For The Sunrise and How High The Moon, maybe Over The Rainbow, some standards. But it depends upon the artist that comes up – if people like a certain kind of music, I will focus the show that way. Whoever walks up on to the stage is the star – he is the picture, we are the frame. The frame is there to make the star look better – let’s make this fellow the best he’s ever going to be.

Good Jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms and yells. Fine Jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great Jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of Jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.

I’ll play it first and tell you what it is afterwards.

In my opinion, I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.

I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light. Then I’m grateful.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line.

I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.

The blues fitted in with the early 60s, the social way of life at the time.

Forget about upholding the tradition and just play who you really are.

If the bass plays the root, a pianist superimposes a Maj7 built on the 5th and the sax plays the 13th, will hot women notice?

If jazz has to be termed as a wave, then music is a sea, but if the reflectors in the water is the chord.

I don’t like to look back because the whole point in Jazz is doing it now.

There’s a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste.

Once we’re inside a tune, we can do anything with it.