Gerry Mulligan Quotes

I'm fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with.

Life on the road is murder. It's as though life begins and ends when you have your horn in your mouth.

Actually, when I was very young, first starting to play, I think I probably listened more to clarinet players than to saxophones.

The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field.

Actually, it is a fact that I've been doing more writing than playing in recent years.

Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra.

It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.

When we've finished the current tour I'm going to go back to Italy and see if I can do some more writing.

So I played alto for quite a while until I saved up the money for the baritone.

The first reason for starting to do the symphony concerts was to play this new piece of mine.

Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately.

New York is still where I live most of the time.

Then, of course, I played alto and tenor, wherever there were jobs.

If you've only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble.

When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins.

A very talented player and all around excellent musician. I love hearing his records on radio!

The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing.

In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.

What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

This life of being a transient human being has gotten to a point when it's very hard to bear.

The other saxophones, except as solo instruments, really don't have much point in the orchestra.

You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it.

The baritone can serve functions that the alto and tenor cannot, in orchestral voicing.

Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.

Eliminating the piano means that I've always worked closer with the bass than most players.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

People are approaching electronic levels in music; although not all of it happens to tickle my fancy.

I've appeared on some other people's albums.

I've always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting.