Gerry Mulligan famous quotes

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

#Music #Jazz #Jazz Music

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

#Way #Band #Jazz

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

#Music #Mouths #Murder

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.
-- Gerry Mulligan

#Tubas #Way #Trumpets

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
-- Gerry Mulligan

#Two #Three #Gone

The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing
-- Gerry Mulligan

#Symphony #Orchestra #Kind

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.
-- Gerry Mulligan

#Thinking #Voice #Symphony

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

#Player #Thinking #Firsts

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

#Baritones #Function #Tenors

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

#People #Levels #Fancy

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

#Saxophone #Electric #Organs

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

#Orchestra #Saxophone #Solo

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

#Fields #Incredibles #Pops

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

#Use #Orchestra #Tenors

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

#Baritones

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

#Listening #Firsts #Saxophone

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

#New York #Stills

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

#Jobs #Tenors

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

#Play #Symphony #Starting Over

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

#Mean #Player #Piano

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

#Writing #Years #Facts

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

#Wit #Melody

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

#Guy #Other Guys

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

#Mess #Devices #Electronic Devices

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

#Kind #Trumpets #Shouting

I've appeared on some other people's albums.
-- Gerry Mulligan

#People #Albums

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

#Player #Way #Baritones

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

#Ensemble #Want #Horns

Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.
-- Gerry Mulligan

#Song #Writing #Play

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

#Bears #This Life #Humans

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

#Writing #Individualism #Currents

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
-- Gerry Mulligan

#People #Innovation #Use