“I never wanted to sound clean and pretty. In jazz, I felt I could sing...” — Cecile McLorin Salvant Quote

I never wanted to sound clean and pretty. In jazz, I felt I could sing these deep, husky lows if I want and then these really tiny laser highs if I want as well.

Jazz sometimes can be really complicated and inaccessible to people because they don't know what to start with. You can start with something that you love, but if you start with something that you hate, then it's like, 'You know what, I hate jazz.' It took me a lot of time to catch on to jazz, too.

Most of the people that I learned and experienced jazz with have been with foreign white people, mostly from France. Excluding my family.

Thelonious Monk was one of the musicians I most connected with early on. I'm a huge Betty Carter fan, and the way that Abbey Lincoln and Shirley Horn grew immensely from the time they were young is so inspirational.

I actually ended up going through a vocal change. It started about two years ago, and it's only been recently that I found my balance again. Vocally, I couldn't figure out what was going on. My lows were getting lower, and my highs were getting higher; everything felt weird.

Early CDs, I found, flattened out the sound - it took away all the highs.

I've experienced the highest of highs and been in every single position, and that has taught me so much.

It's emotional highs and lows in the game of golf.

There's nothing to beat 'DID' on Indian television... the show that has given me so many highs in my career!