Rolling Stone Magazine
March 1998
compiled by Anthony Bozza

BILL FRISELL at the Village Vanguard, New York, 1996
He played an impromptu "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and his band stopped playing and it was just him on guitar. He played it like such a frustrated genius Charlie Brown. It was so incredibly poignant that he started crying. And the audience was all...I mean, I was crying, and then the band members started crying. It stirred my soul.

"HOUNDS OF LOVE" Kate Bush (EMI)
At a pivotal point for me-when I was wondering if I was going to be a jazz singer and struggle through life doing depressing lounge gigs or write my own music-she made it acceptable to be audacious, bizarre, and passionate.

ASTON "FAMILY MAN" BARRETT
Bob Marley's bass player. He's my favorite in the world. It's the concept of the bottom-the fat bass as the anchor of the music. It connects you with the root, with the earth. And you can totally feel it in your crotch.

"WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?"directed by Mike Nichols
It reminds me of Picasso's Rape of the Sabine Women where, instead of portraying the entire battlefield, he portrayed one child and one mother. That's it to me: Taking human drama and putting it in a single room, in a single night-it's so powerful. Besides, Liz Taylor and Richard Burton were just playing out their own lives.

ARETHA FRANKLIN
She's gotten really lazy, but early Aretha is a mindblower. She was one of my greatest teachers-I tried so hard to sing along to Lady Soul and Aretha's Gold. I'm sure I sounded horrible, but it got me to open my mouth and sing from my guts.

HOT ROCKS 1964-1971 The Rolling Stones(Abkco)
I listened to it for the first time a few weeks ago, and I loved it. I grew up so incredibly ignorant of the world of pop and rock-I haven't gotten to Led Zeppelin yet either.

"SIDDHARTHA"Herman Hesse
I read it in high school and four times since. I see it as a metaphor for my life: leaving home, going into the world and having sex and taking drugs, trying to become more ascetic. And finally, somehow marrying all the extremes and finding the middle way.