Nnenna Freelon

When you listen to a pianist, each notes should have an identity, each note should have a soul of its own.

All of the technique doesn’t matter… only if the feeling is right.

Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple.

The word “jazz” means to me no category, but when you get stuck into wanting to do something the way it was with the “jazz emblem” or logo chained around your neck, you play in a frozen moment in time and you keep fermenting the ‘fifties saying jazz should be this way or that. Well, if jazz to me means no category, then I’ve got the green light And if it sounds like.. sounds like.. sounds like, and keeps crossing over, it’s what I wanted to do in the first place. I like the way Stravinsky and those guys did things. They expressed something, if not themselves. In fact, some people talk about expression, but expression really doesn’t mean anything to me because there’s a lot of work which goes into building a drama and then it’s up to other people to offer “expression.” Expression is such a nebulous thing.

Talk of God is most often in church. Is there a God outside of church? I hope so. But how should I know? How does anybody know?

When you sing, always tell the truth.

It’s difficult for me to dislike an artist, no matter what he’s creating.

I let my body play what’s in my heart. I play life instead of notes. I play what I lived.

I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good – he’s rock’s #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us.

You don’t know what love is, until you’ve learned the meaning of the blues, until you’ve loved a love you’ve had to lose.

I compulsively reach for perfection in music, often at the expense of everything else in my life.

You want the audience to feel what you’re doing.

Bebop was about change, about evolution. It wasn’t about standing still and being safe.

Music is an addiction.

Anything I do has to be directly related to my music. If it isn’t, I don’t really see a point to it.