6. Billie HolidayLady Sings The Blues

A lot of my phrasing and the way I play melodies comes from singers. Billie Holiday is my favourite. She tells a story in the way she sings a song. Those little subtle breaks and scoops. She’s such a master of phrasing and that subtlety made me want to be able to do that with the saxophone.

That’s something I also learned from playing with Snoop Dogg. I grew up listening to Snoop and when I started playing with him, it gave me a completely different way of thinking about music. It’s all about timing and phrasing and real intuition.

Billie sings so many great songs on this record. I have a lot of favourite Billie Holiday albums but this one is probably her strongest effort. It’s got ‘Strange Fruit’. A lot of the songs on here are just classics.