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.'

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

I'm a goof, man.

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.

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

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

I think I make most of my decisions pretty organically.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.