I try to sleep as much as I can. I drink a lot of water. I practice consistently and just try to be ready for the gig.

The singer is always an ambassador of music.

I want to be the jazz singer.

People want to have access to jazz because it has a vibe that's very strong.

I don't want to take it easy.

If you're going to be transparent, you're going to have to let the music come that wants to come.

I know how hard it's been for me to get my thing out there.

A lot of people are put off by the idea of scat singing. Either that or it's something to be made fun of.

I was very lucky that more experienced musicians allowed me to caterwaul until I figured out what it was really about.

My goal is to be really incredible by the time I'm 70.

I think my intention was there, and my love for the music was apparent. And there are very few singers who get up and desire to take the kinds of risks that jazz musicians routinely need to be taking.

It's true that I'm not known as a crooner or balladeer. I'm known for a more crusading or quixotic temperament.

There's a wide spectrum of possibilities in how to deliver a song.

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.

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.

Music is a physical expression that has a physical impact upon the listener. Sound travels in waves through the air. This is not abstract. This is scientific fact. And it makes physical contact with the eardrum... and with the heart... and with the rest of the body.

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

At a certain point, the graduate school thing didn't work out, and that meant I was liberated.

If I was going to sell out, I would do it for more than 10,000 records.

I had everything to gain by giving it everything I could.

I've worked with a number of big bands, but there's nothing in life like the Basie band.

I didn't arrive on the scene until after Jaco Pastorius had passed, but 'Three Views of a Secret' is a long-time favourite of mine.

You want to be doing your best work whatever field of the arts you're in because your life's going to be over all too soon, and you have to make the most of it.

I think I make most of my decisions pretty organically.

I'm lucky that I enjoy touring as much as I do. I'm not going to make a living just making records.

It's pretty rare in jazz to have a full-on steady band.

It's a beautiful thing to have time in the world, as a singer and as a musician, to make friends with people of the musical caliber of a Tommy Smith, an Arturo Sandoval, a Richard Galliano, a Till Broenner.

I'm a goof, man.

I'm a guy who has more slapstick than Joe Cool moments in his day, so I'm not taking myself so seriously.

I couldn't do what I do without the encouragement and influence of the musicians I played with in Chicago.

Chicago is my home. And the way Chicago sounds will always be a part of who I am.

With a smaller setting, you have a lot more freedom and flexibility within a given moment, but not necessarily the velocity you have with a big band.

Sometimes, with vocalese, I'm dealing with something, a great solo from the past, which is so iconic I can't presume to change it or mess with it.

I benefit from a change of scenery; it's always inspiring.

I can be chill. That's a side of me that I like. But then, I can also be not so chill. I can get a little stressed out.

Even when I haven't played in a while, I can sit down and start with a chord, and just drop into it. It's like this tunnel I go into. The zone is where I want to live.

I think that I identify with Philadelphia for a lot of reasons. Without even thinking about it, I called myself 'Philly's Constant Hitmaker' when I first got a MySpace, before I had any real hits. It was kind of just a funny slogan, basically lifted from the Rolling Stones' first album, 'England's Newest Hit Makers.'

Finger-picking, in general, is a hypnotic thing. I feel like I'm more A.D.D. all the time, so the music has to be hypnotic.

No offense to Boston, but I was glad to get out of there. I think it's just because I'm from Philly. Honestly, the blue collar side of each are pretty similar in ways, but something about the makeup of your brain, Philly versus Boston. It's a lot different, in weird ways.

I walk around a lot. People come up to me and say 'Hi,' but not that often. I mean, I get it plenty often, but sometimes I wish they'd come up to me more! I mean, I'm just a regular guy.

I go through ups and downs in the psyche all the time, and then once you start moving again, it's amazing how you can always bounce back. You get, like, in a low rut, and you think, 'This is it; my life is a train wreck.' And then you bounce back again.

I got depressed so many times by my blue-collar life and self-conscious about the fact that I didn't go to college. I was always working super low-end jobs, being the complete opposite of what I wanted to be.

I'm not cynical, but the reality is that life is mortal. Terrible, sad things happen. Everybody loses friends and family. I'll be on tour and get really scared if my wife won't answer her phone within one minute. I'm sensitive.

I think if you just travel in general, it allows you to step outside of yourself and whatever you're familiar with.

Around '93, the radio started playing 'Loser' by Beck and 'Cut Your Hair' by Pavement, and then I got way into Pavement. That was kind of a gateway drug into indie rock. I got all their B-sides, and I got that 'Hey Drag City' comp, so I got into all those Drag City bands.

Philly's busy enough. There are tons of record stores and record-head friends and plenty of D.I.Y. shows. It's a place where people pass through and bands don't usually skip on tour. There are lots of music resources, but it's not too over the top.

I've always been a deep sleeper; because I come from such a large family - there are 10 kids - I could sleep through anything. Even with my last day job, I'd sleep in later and later and start coming in an hour-and-a-half late. I got fired twice before I really got fired.

I love polished pop music, but stuff like Neil Young's Crazy Horse vibe or Waylon Jennings, that stuff is raw and real.

After I play a gig, I'm like a different person: I have superhuman strength.

When I was 20, I moved up to Boston with my girlfriend, who's now my wife. She went to grad school, and I met a bunch of cool friends there.