Quotes by Dianne Reeves - Page 2 | QuoteForever

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People think jazz music is all standards and the Great American Songbook. But it's really about the sensibility, the feel you bring to the music.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Great American
Jazz Music
Sensibility
Standards
Music Great People
Songbook
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Being from Colorado is, to me, very, very special. I'm just very thankful to be here. I'm also thankful to be a part of the history of this state.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Thankful
Colorado
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Silver gray hair Neatly combed in place There were four generations Of love on her face She was so wise No surprise passed her eyes She's seen it all
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Wise
Eye
Grandma
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I knew what the story behind 'Dreams' was. It was about Stevie Knicks' relationship. But when I sing it, it's about sharing some sage advice with somebody.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Sage
Stevie
Sharing
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I've dated a few musicians in my life, and it's kind of always been that way for me. You unite through creativity and share that process and more together.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Life Together Me
Life Together Always
Dated
Unite
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In any event, I'm proud to wear the badge of jazz vocalist if that's what people want to call me; but at the same time, there are many other things I like to do.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Vocalist
Time Me People
Badge
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I have one closet that's just shoes. The woman go, 'Amen,' and the men go, 'Oh my God.' It's color-coordinated from the ceiling to the floor, from evening to casual.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Amen
Casual
Evening
Ceiling
Closet
Floor
Oh My God
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My mother would say, 'Stay ready so you don't have to get ready.' I spent a lot of my early years preparing for beautiful moments that have unfolded in my life so far.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Preparing
Life Beautiful My Life
Early Years
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Too many people judge a singer like Beyonce by what they see on the surface. Knowing the musicians she's worked with and how she works, I have a lot of respect for her.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Beyonce
Too Many People
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Some people think that all you do is record, and it's not the case. You take on other projects as well, and you have to live a little bit because it inspires your work.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Work People Live
Inspires
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The music we do is weaved together through stories and life experiences. When people come to hear us, I hope they are are uplifted and that we give them a lot to take home.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Life Experiences
Uplifted
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I love New York City because there's something to do 24/7, something that will make you see things in a whole different light. Like they say, it's the city that never sleeps.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
New York City
Sleeps
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The biggest thing is to just keep your voice in shape so that when the emotion hits, it's there to have the colors to paint those pictures with the lyrics as well as the sound.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Paint
Biggest Thing
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I did a project called 'Sing The Truth,' which was a lot of fun. It started out being a celebration of the music of Nina Simone, and it was me and Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Celebration
Nina
Truth Music Me
Wright
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I think jazz is the foundation for a lot of great musicians, and then after that, you know, it's this broad expression of things that really have influenced and addressed your life.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Foundation
Life Great Your
Broad
Influenced
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I remember my grandmother used to always say, 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket.' But when I realized that music was inside of me, I decided I'm putting all my eggs in one basket.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Eggs
Music Always Your
Basket
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When I first heard Nina Simone, her naked truth shocked me. Whenever she sang, it felt like lightning bolts in my soul. Every song was like a movie, a unique and very different vignette.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Bolts
Lightning
My Soul
Nina
Shocked
Sang
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I had a few celebrity crushes when I was growing up, including Eddie Kendricks from the Temptations. And I loved Marvin Gaye - I thought he was everything and instantly fell for his voice.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Crushes
Eddie
Instantly
Temptations
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My demographic is very broad. Once they come, they had an idea about jazz, and then they hear me, and they come back with sisters, brothers, and kids. My audience looks like America to me.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Broad
Sisters
Demographic
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I always say that improvisation is the utterance of one's spirit, and it dictates your life experience, and that's how you find your concepts and your way for painting your musical picture.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Concepts
Improvisation
Life Experience
Musical
Painting
Utterance
Life Experience Always
Picture
Dictates
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I came up at a time in the late '60s, early '70s where music was without boundaries. You'd go into a music store, and the music was in alphabetical order. I hadn't heard of that word 'genre.'
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Alphabet
Boundaries
Time Music Where
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A lot of young people want to become jazz singers, but there are not more jam sessions like there used to be. I just want to have the opportunity to be able to bring that to some young people.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Jam
Singers
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And I've found that, you know, the world of music is so vast and so broad, but at the same time, it's easy to find parts of yourself in places that you wouldn't even think that you were, you know?
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Time Music World
Broad
Vast
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I've always had really wonderful people around me. But early on, I remember I would walk into a session or go do something with some musicians, and they viewed me, basically, as their chick singer.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Session
Walk Me Remember
Chick
Walk Always Me
Viewed
Wonderful People
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Your voice is not your instrument. Your voice is the character that you build, your innermost feelings, the things that you want to say, and your instrument is the vehicle that you use to carry the message.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Vehicle
Innermost
Instrument
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My friend Harry Belafonte is an activist and musician, an extraordinary man who has dedicated his life to human rights. He taught me the power of words and that music can be used to heal and educate people.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Dedicated
Educate
Extraordinary
Heal
Human Rights
Musician
Rights
Taught
Words
Life Power Music
Friend
Harry
My Friend
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I grew up listening to all kinds of music. When I came up, you would hear people like Marvin Gaye talking about Sarah Vaughan. You would go to a show and see Ella Fitzgerald performing the music of the Beatles.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Music People Listening
Music People See
Ella
Fitzgerald
Hear People
Sarah
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Lizz Wright, we call her lovingly 'Amazing Grace.' She has a folk and gospel kind of approach to the music, and she writes beautiful lyrics and songs. She's like this balm that is really full and very rich and deep.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Music Amazing Beautiful
Gospel
Balm
Folk
Lovingly
Wright
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It's funny: I look at songs, and I guess they each tell a story, and the different songs talk about different things. But they're unified by the rhythm underneath and the way that we decided to arrange and play them.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Different Things
Rhythm
Unified
Arrange
Underneath
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My musical selections are a reflection of how I grew up. Because, back then, you could see Miles Davis and Ravi Shankar on the same stage. And nobody thought anything of it, other than the fact that it was great music.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Great Music
Miles
Musical
Reflection
Stage
Davis
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Early on, I started with classical voice and had that wonderful foundation. For where I wanted to go at that time, there were no teachers to teach it, so I came up with all kinds of different ways to develop the sound of my voice.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Different Ways
Classical
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Singers like Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar are very conscious of what's going on around them, and they're waking up lot of young people with that knowledge. They bring their enlightenment to the world; the world that is buying their records.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Beyonce
Buying
Conscious
Enlightenment
Singers
Waking
Knowledge World People
Waking Up
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My life has been going in ways I never could have dreamed of - doing the closing celebration for the Olympic Games and being appointed the creative chair for jazz at the L.A. Philharmonic. So I've just decided I'll go with my flow and be very prepared.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Celebration
Closing
Flow
Olympic Games
Life My Life Jazz
Appointed
Chair
Dreamed
Olympic
Philharmonic
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The singer who really opened the door for me was Sarah Vaughan. But I listen to so much music, especially when I was growing up. My parents loved jazz music, so on Saturday [laughing] it would be the "Longine's Symphonettes," and on Sunday it was Mahalia Jackson.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Doors
Growing Up
Sunday
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Now, jazz institutions are more readily available for young people, but for me, the institutions were the bands that I was in. When I worked with Clark Terry, that was the beginning of school for me, and Harry Belafonte and Sergio Mendes, they were all my universities.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Available
Jazz
Me People Jazz
Beginning
Clark
Me Beginning People
Harry
Sergio
Readily
Terry
Universities
Young People
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I look back at Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and especially Betty Carter, whom I admire the most, and I say, OK, they set a standard of excellence. I listen to them not for what they are doing, but to study where they are coming from because, for me, jazz is life experience.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Experience
Admire
Carter
Excellence
Jazz
Life Experience
Study
Life Experience Me
Life Experience Look
Betty
Coming
Set
Ella
Fitzgerald
Standard
Sarah
Whom
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In high school, we had a really great jazz program that I finally was able to be a part of. They only wanted instrumentalists; they didn't want any singers. But I made my way in, and I remember the conductor of the band wrote a lot of arrangements and asked me what I wanted to sing.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Arrangements
Conductor
Singers
Great Me Remember
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My junior high school teacher, Bennie Williams, was really more than a music teacher. She taught us poetry. She helped us put on school shows. She did all these kinds of things to help us stand in each other's shoes, and it was a really powerful time. That's when I discovered that I could sing.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Teacher
High School
Junior High
Powerful
Taught
Time Poetry Music
Discovered
Helped
High School Teacher
Junior
Junior High School
School Teacher
Sing
Williams
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The music industry is changing. You only hear a sprinkling of big names, but there are a lot of really wonderful young musicians with great voices and lyrical content who have refined their sound. They're up in here, so don't think they're not. There's this wealth of talent below the surface that's ready to explode.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Lyrical
Music Industry
Refined
Great Music Talent
Below
Music Great Talent
Explode
Voices
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The beauty of Billie Holiday is that she gave every singer after her the license to interpret and perform music in ways that were unique to each of us. Her uniqueness was very much a part of the way she sang the songs, the story she wanted to tell through the songs. I didn't really have a full understanding of Billie until I left home -- until I'd lived a little, shall we say. At different seasons of my life, when I'd sing her songs or listen to her albums, I'd hear things I didn't hear before. Wherever you are in life, you'll hear different things in her songs.
Dianne Reeves / Jazz Singer
Home
Holiday
Song
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