Saxophone Quotes - Page 3

• My grammar school graduating class in 1941 had a little party for 13 or 14 year-old kids. [Trumpeter] King Kolax's band played for the party and Gene Ammons was playing tenor saxophone with the band. And that's when I said, "That's it!" Just like that, tunnelvision ever since.

  Johnny Griffin

  Kings, Party, Kids

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• Playboys' was an authentic junkie record. Art Pepper was just out of jail, Chet was arrested a week after the session, and piano player Carl Perkins would die two years later. When the record was recorded I was behind bars myself. In 1955 I was caught with narcotics and had to serve almost five years. Luckily, I was allowed to keep my saxophone in the cell, and I composed a lot during the time. They had to come fetch the music for Playboys from jail.

  Jimmy Heath

  Art, Player, Cells

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• Louis Armstrong changed all the brass players around, but after Bird, all of the instruments had to change - drums, piano, bass, trombones, trumpets, saxophones, everything.

  Cootie Williams

  Memorable, Player, Piano

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• Alto (saxophone) is just a very hard instrument; there's so few people that play it really well. I feel it's the best one, too, now. At first I didn't feel that way; I wanted to be a tenor player. It took a long time for me to feel that alto was the most expressive of the saxophones.

  Art Pepper

  Player, Long, People

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• You don't try to duplicate certain things that other cats do, because you could never do it as well as they do. Nobody can get on that tenor saxophone and play like Trane, because he's the only one who can spell out chords and sound good when he does it.

  Wynton Marsalis

  Cat, Play, Trying

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• Tim Price is one of the real ones !
  A good friend and a great player !

  Phil Woods

  Real, Good Friend, Player

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• From the small clubs of the Harlem Renaissance where he began playing saxophone to world tours for the biggest of the big bands, Benny Carter redefined American jazz. From the start, his fellow musicians said the way he played the sax was amazing. They say that about me, too. (Laughter.) But I don't think they mean it in quite the same way.

  William J. Clinton

  Laughter, Mean, Thinking

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• 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

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• I understood that if I wanted to work, the saxophone was the main instrument. The clarinet was what we call a double.

  Lee Konitz

  Double Standard, Instruments, Clarinet

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• I spend a lot of time copying saxophone players and trumpet players. Not to say that it is not important to listen to guitar players, but there's so much music out there and so many possibilities. I like anyone who plays any instrument.

  Bill Frisell

  Player, Guitar, Important

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• I love music. My secret dream has always been to be a jazz musician. I tried the saxophone for a year or two when I was younger, but unfortunately I had to face the fact that I was not really talented !

  Gaspard Ulliel

  Dream, Years, Two

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• After one month with a saxophone shoved in my mouth, my military combatant's enthusiasm disappeared completely. Instead of flying choppers behind enemy lines, I started to fantasise about living in New York, London or Paris.

  Gilad Atzmon

  New York, Military, Creativity

  Gilad Atzmon (2011). “The Wandering Who?: A Study of Jewish Identity Politics”, p.3, John Hunt Publishing

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• I know I’m an African-American, and I know I play the saxophone, but I’m not a jazz musician. I’m not a classical musician, either. My music is like my life: It’s in between these areas.

  Anthony Braxton

  Play, African American, Musician

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• My school music teacher, Al Bennest, introduced me to jazz by playing Louis Armstrong's record of "West End Blues" for me. I found more jazz on the radio, and began looking for records. My paper route money, and later, money I earned working after school in a print shop and a butcher shop went toward buying jazz records. I taught myself the alto saxophone and the drums in order to play in my high school dance band.

  Bill Crow

  Teacher, School, Order

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• I was not a band geek, per say. But me and my two older sisters played instruments, so I would come home and my sister Dana would be playing the clarinet or playing the piano, and I would play the saxophone, my other sister would be singing, my mom would be singing. I was not afraid to be musical. That was not something that I thought was uncool.

  Miles Teller

  Mom, Home, Play

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

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• I'm very gratified that I had my little 15 minutes,or whatever [at the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition]. It certainly didn't make me rich and famous. But it helped a little bit for a while.

  Jon Gordon

  Competition, Littles, Rich

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• The saxophone is a very interesting machine, but I'm more interested in music.

  Steve Lacy

  Interesting, Machines, Very Interesting

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• I played in the high school band. I was the one baritone saxophone out of 80 other people. No one could tell whether I was hittin the right notes or the wrong notes.

  Bobby Keys

  School, People, Band

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• ...black music is a group music. That's why I don't like doing a solo saxophone thing: My feeling stems from rhythm, I really have to feel that rhythmic thing happening.

  Jimmy Lyons

  Feelings, Black, Groups

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• 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

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• I was finishing up at High School of Performing Arts and finally, by the end of junior year and start of senior year, made some progress as a 16 year-old classical saxophone player. But not really... not like how the legit cats do. But I love the [Jacques] Ibert, love [Alexander] Glazunov, love the [Paul] Creston.

  Jon Gordon

  Senior, Art, School

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• And I too wanted to be. That is all I wanted; and this is the last word. At the bottom of all these attempts which seemed without bounds, I find the same desire again: to drive existence out of me, to rid the passing moments of their fat, to twist them, dry them, purify myself, harden myself, to give back at last the sharp, precise sound of a saxophone note. That could even make an apologue: there was a poor man who got in the wrong world.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Men, Giving, Desire

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• I have not practiced saxophone since 1980. I mean, not one note. I do not pick it up in my house, and that's the end of it.

  John Zorn

  Mean, House, Ends

  "Interview hits dissonant chord with John Zorn" by Lee Hildebrand, www.sfgate.com. August 26, 2010.

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• A lot of my video work is super lo-fi on purpose. I'm not trying to become technically super proficient. The only thing I'm interested in becoming technically proficient on is my alto saxophone.

  Matana Roberts

  Trying, Video, Purpose

  Source: thequietus.com

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• Talking about the all night concerts, I did some of the first all night concerts back in the 60's with this little harmonium, and I also had saxophone taped delays.

  Terry Riley

  Night, Talking, Delay

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