I'm always looking for ways to develop as a Jazz artist, to find different ways of using my voice.

Being black, I'm involved in the reparations movement. It's focused toward the African-American audience. We could begin to heal.

My grandmother sang, too, and she was really loud. It was this wild kind of singing. I count her among my influences.

Miles Davis was doing something inherently African, something that has to do with all forms of American music, not just jazz.

My father had all kinds of instruments in the house that he would hide from my mother. He bought them through mail order!

I was never interested in singing in the church or school. I was more interested in becoming a musician.

I'm always imagining some sort of story behind the song, even the ones I haven't written. I'm actively engaging in playacting.