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
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
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
People are approaching electronic levels in music; although not all of it happens to tickle my fancy. – Gerry Mulligan
Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent 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
It’s true I’ve always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way. – Gerry Mulligan
The other saxophones, except as solo instruments, really don’t have much point in the orchestra. – Gerry Mulligan
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
Actually, it is a fact that I’ve been doing more writing than playing in recent years. – Gerry Mulligan
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
I’ve always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting. – Gerry Mulligan
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
This life of being a transient human being has gotten to a point when it’s very hard to bear. – Gerry Mulligan
