Evan Parker Quotes

• My roots are in my record player.

  Evan Parker

  Player, Roots, Records

  7 Copy quote

• Improvisation is a compositional method.

  Evan Parker

  Method, Improvisation

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• Certain kinds of speed, flow, intensity, density of attacks, density of interaction... Music that concentrates on those qualities is, I think, easier achieved by free improvisation between people sharing a common attitude, a common language.

  Evan Parker

  Attitude, Thinking, People

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• So what starts is ad hoc and you never know where it's going to lead, so it's important to keep an open mind about those things.

  Evan Parker

  Mind, Important, Ads

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• I didn't get where I am today by being timid, young man.

  Evan Parker

  Men, Today, Young

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• In a certain sense, aspects of my solo playing were developed in order to test the theory about how long particular elements could be, as parts of so-called free improvisations.

  Evan Parker

  Order, Long, Elements

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• You know, the whole philosophy of ad hoc combinations has its strengths and its weaknesses.

  Evan Parker

  Philosophy, Weakness, Combination

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• When you add a period of 25 years between the playing and the listening, then the whole question of meaning gets very complicated.

  Evan Parker

  Years, Listening, Add

  6 Copy quote

• I think the whole question of meaning in music is difficult enough even if you hear me playing live right now in the same room! What I mean and what you take from it may be two quite different things anyway.

  Evan Parker

  Music, Mean, Thinking

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• I've never been one that thinks that the function of an instrument is to approach the purity of voice or the structure of a beautifully sung line.

  Evan Parker

  Thinking, Voice, Lines

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• Remarkable only the very best arrangers can get a sound like that from four horns

  Evan Parker

  Sound, Four, Horns

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• We all listened to a lot of recorded music, especially American jazz, modern jazz, and that's where our studies were and our inspiration came from.

  Evan Parker

  Inspiration, Jazz, Study

  7 Copy quote

• Those early steps are very important in understanding the evolution. But in themselves, maybe now you need the later records to understand the significance of the earlier records!

  Evan Parker

  Understanding, Important, Needs

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• So in the sense that we were all dealing with that freer approach, yes, it was certainly one of the first contacts, perhaps the first contact, when Peter came that summer. So it's a very pivotal moment that is documented there.

  Evan Parker

  Summer, Pivotal Moments, Firsts

  52 Copy quote

• If I think about the way I was drawn into the music, it was much more by recordings than by live performances.

  Evan Parker

  Thinking, Way, Performances

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• Of course when people are as talented as Jim O'Rourke or Gene Coleman, pretty soon you know that they're going to be part of the bigger scene anyway.

  Evan Parker

  People, Scene, Genes

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• To speak about notation as the only way that you can guarantee structure of course is already very suspect.

  Evan Parker

  Guarantees, Way, Speak

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• There's an institution here called the National Sound Archive, and there's a character who works there, Paul Wilson. He takes a very special interest in the history of the music and advised Martin Davidson of the existence of these tapes.

  Evan Parker

  Character, Special, Sound

  7 Copy quote

• So I'm looking to the saxophone as a resource which has its own unique set of possibilities. I'm looking to exploit them and develop them and have the fullest range of possibilities of the saxophone be known.

  Evan Parker

  Unique, Saxophone, Possibility

  21 Copy quote

• I think the voice does that perfectly adequately without being imitated by other instruments.

  Evan Parker

  Thinking, Voice, Doe

  8 Copy quote

• I think the solo playing, the decision to start playing solo, came out of having discovered what lay behind the doors that that technique opened for me.

  Evan Parker

  Thinking, Doors, Decision

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• The argument we always used to use was that keeping records in the catalog was good for people that were coming new to the music, but I think that was talking over a ten year or fifteen year time span.

  Evan Parker

  Thinking, Talking, Years

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• There are many of these apparent philosophical paradoxes or contradictions which don't concern me anymore.

  Evan Parker

  Philosophical, Paradox, Contradiction

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• I've been to the studio several times, and it's not that I'm not happy with what I've got, but each time I come away, I feel that I've learned something that I want to work on.

  Evan Parker

  Want, I've Learned, Not Happy

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• I'd met Roscoe in Europe quite a few times over the years, and we'd say hi and so on, but this was the first time we'd actually played together.

  Evan Parker

  Years, Europe, Together

  4 Copy quote

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