Gerry Mulligan Quotes

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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