I've always liked a lot of different kinds of music.
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.
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.
I'm a great cook. People have asked me to do a cookbook.
I believe that music should really be without boundaries.
One of the things that I love about Sarah Vaughan is that she was always very current.
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.
When I sing a song, I want someone to recognize 'Now that's Dianne singing that song.'
I didn't learn the word 'genre' until way, way late - I mean, like, in the '80s.
Jazz onstage is a very intimate exchange between everybody that's onstage.
I come from a family of storytellers. My grandmother was great at telling stories, and my mother was an amazing storyteller.
I love being with artists because I'm always open to getting into something.
My mother was really amazing and left me with a whole lot of treasures. I miss her terribly.
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.
Jazz musicians have always tended to have cult followings, which is pretty wonderful.
Brazilian music has been a part of almost every record I've done, and I'd eventually like to record an entire album of Brazilian music.
If a song feels good to me, it's not very difficult to make it my own.
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.
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.
The Confederate flag is a divisive presence - it's the opposite of everything my artistry means and represents.
