Cecile McLorin Salvant Quotes

#1. I never wanted to sound clean and pretty. I always wanted to have kind of a certain natural quality to my voice, and I wish it were more rough than it is.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#2. I remember in school - in elementary school - I used to recite poems. We'd have to recite poems. And I would always just, like, roll on the floor, like, just make it such a huge, melodramatic portrayal of whatever it was.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#3. I did everything I could to not bring in any of the - any of the technical things I got from classical into jazz. And I did everything to really base it on my speaking voice and to just not try to make it sound pretty.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#4. I do love being onstage. And I've always loved playing a character and being watched doing that.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#5. I doubt myself a lot. And I'm very, very just overly critical.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#6. The more I listened and became obsessed with singers, I feel like the more I realized that I had my own little thing that I could do.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#7. It takes me a lot of time, and it's almost frustrating for the guys sometimes because they're waiting for a new song. And I - it's just so important for me to get the perfect, exact, right song.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#8. I don't like being the focus of attention. It makes me very uncomfortable. And it's part of the reason I never look at videos of myself, or I very rarely listen to my music or even read things that I might've said.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#9. I remember as a child I just would copy everyone else's handwriting, and now I have sort of a version of my sister's handwriting. And I feel like - sometimes I feel that way for my voice.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#10. I just don't like to be in my own - I'm already myself, so I don't like to be in my own - like, watch myself.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#11. I just became obsessed with looking for new singers, unknown singers, people that maybe have been forgotten, and really checking them out and analyzing what they do - and obsessive listening. I think that's the core of my work on music - has been just listening to things and listening to singers.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#12. I wasn't listening to that much classical music - not much more than anything else. I was really lucky to have parents who loved all kinds of music.

Cecile McLorin Salvant

#13. I think when black performers performed in blackface, they were kind of taking back slave songs, but it was still a little bit iffy because they were performing, a lot of times, for white audiences who found it hilarious.

Cecile McLorin Salvant