You know, I’ve sung a lot of emotional songs in my life, but when you’re writing it yourself, it’s very difficult to decide what to reveal.

I think that I was being much more uptight about those things before. I feel like I really don’t have to prove anything at this point other than what I’m doing.

I’m not really on a mission to tell anybody anything. I’d rather be figured out.

So much of what we do as artists is a combination of personal experience and imagination, and how that all creeps into your work is not so linear.

When I Look In Your Eyes,

Some so-called ‘jazz purists’ are critical of me using strings instead of just a trio, and I say to that, ‘HA! Who cares?’

I love music so much I love what I do. I work very hard at being the best musician I can be because I love it.

Jingle Bells.

I mean, I don’t think I would call Claus to do an album of big band tunes. You know, just like arrangers write for the artist they have in mind; you have to keep in...

I like to interpret ‘Call me a River’, as if I’m saying, ‘Now you’re telling me you love me after all that, and I’m telling you to shove off.’ That’s my interpretation. But I would...

It was probably when I met Jeff Hamilton, the drummer I’ve been working with for the last 20 years. He’s the one who brought Ray Brown to hear me sing at a restaurant in my...

That’s why these songs have lasted as long as they have because they’re just about feelings that don’t change. They are love songs, they are not specific, those kinds of feelings don’t change.

Sometimes I can’t get out of the character because the story is very intense.

There were some things that I found I really enjoyed singing about; like, on the title track, there’s this film-noir character of a woman who’s sort of losing it in a room.

The album is a definite departure. I haven’t written original material before, except for one song on my first album, but Elvis and I did six songs together on this one.

Well, you know, it’s been interesting because an album is just a snapshot of where you are at that time. Not all pictures of everybody are just in jeans and a ‘T’ shirt, or a...

You’re creating an intimacy that everybody feels, that it’s their experience, not yours. I’ll never introduce a song and say, now this song is about ‘my’ broken heart.

When you drive by Radio City and you see your name up there and it’s only ‘your’ name. I just went ‘ooh’. I thought this is really like looking at another person.

But the greatest thing about music is putting it out there for people to figure out. You want the listener to find the song on their own. If you give too much away, it takes...