Kurt Elling

I travel all the time. And as I go around the world, I try to learn a little something and not just take up all the available air.

You don't know what bravery is until you overcome fear.

My strength is to communicate with an audience and to know what jazz singing is capable of.

I consider myself very fortunate. I have a beautiful wife who supports my work and is raising our daughter when I'm out on the road.

People just want to dig; they want to dance. They don't want to work all through the night, and neither do I. I like getting 'out there,' but communication should be occurring on more levels than heavy-laden philosophical.

It helps me to learn things in different languages, even if it's just phonetically, and to make myself vulnerable to other audiences by trying to reflect back to them the genius of their own cultures, and to do that, oftentimes, in new jazz settings, new arrangements. It's a way to show respect.