Zitat des Tages von Gerry Mulligan:
Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra.
Eliminating the piano means that I've always worked closer with the bass than most players.
So I played alto for quite a while until I saved up the money for the baritone.
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.
I've appeared on some other people's albums.
When we've finished the current tour I'm going to go back to Italy and see if I can do some more writing.
New York is still where I live most of the time.
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.
I've always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting.
You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it.
People are approaching electronic levels in music; although not all of it happens to tickle my fancy.
In fact, I heard Bird first, and had got well into listening to him. You know, it's the kind of accidental thing that awareness of a player is: what's available, what somebody happens to play for you.
Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.
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.
I'm fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with.
Then, of course, I played alto and tenor, wherever there were jobs.
In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.
Actually, it is a fact that I've been doing more writing than playing in recent years.
The other saxophones, except as solo instruments, really don't have much point in the orchestra.
It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.
This life of being a transient human being has gotten to a point when it's very hard to bear.
Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately.
If you've only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble.
The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing.
When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins.
The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field.