Gerry Mulligan Quotes
"This life of being a transient human being has gotten to a point when it's very hard to bear."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Life, Being)
"If you've only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Sense, Want)
"I've appeared on some other people's albums."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: People)
"I've always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting."
- Gerry Mulligan
"I'm fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with."
- Gerry Mulligan
"I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing."
- Gerry Mulligan
"Eliminating the piano means that I've always worked closer with the bass than most players."
- Gerry Mulligan
"Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Wit)
"Actually, it is a fact that I've been doing more writing than playing in recent years."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Fact, Writing, Years)
"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
(Related: Italy, Writing)
"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
"The baritone can serve functions that the alto and tenor cannot, in orchestral voicing."
- Gerry Mulligan
"In a way, I started out to be a baritone player."
- Gerry Mulligan
"When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: First, Listening)
"You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it."
- Gerry Mulligan
"Then, of course, I played alto and tenor, wherever there were jobs."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Jobs)
"The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Composers)
"The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Success)
"The other saxophones, except as solo instruments, really don't have much point in the orchestra."
- Gerry Mulligan
"The first reason for starting to do the symphony concerts was to play this new piece of mine."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: First, Play, Reason)
"It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Jazz)
"Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Songs)
"New York is still where I live most of the time."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: 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."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Dance, Jazz, Now, Tradition)
"Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra."
- Gerry Mulligan
"People are approaching electronic levels in music; although not all of it happens to tickle my fancy."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Music, People, Fancy)
"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
(Related: Time, People, Nonsense, Talk)
"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."
- Gerry Mulligan
(Related: Awareness, Fact, First, Listening, Play)