Gerry Mulligan Quotes

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

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.

When [Billy] Strayhorn came on the scene, he just blew us away.

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

Now, the instrumentation in the jazz band and the jazz dance band has gone through many evolutions. For instance, in the 'twenties the tradition was two or three saxophones

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

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

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

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

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

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

People talk about innovations and evolutions and that kind of thing; I don't understand about that nonsense. It's like, all instruments are there to use all the time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You start way down on a low B flat on the tuba and you have a chromatic scale; you can match the colours all the way up, till you get to the top of the trumpet.

Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.

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

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

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

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

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

I would think, of all the saxophones, the baritone would be the most logical instrument if anybody was adding a voice to the symphony orchestra.

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

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

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

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.

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