To me, there is spirit in a reed. It's a living thing, a weed, really, and it does contain spirit of a sort. It's really an ancient vibration. |
People don't want to suffer. They want to sound good immediately, and this is one of the biggest problems in the world. |
If you're trying to invent something new, you're going to reach a lot of discouraging points, and most people give up. |
I fell in love with jazz when I was 12 years old from listening to Duke Ellington and hearing a lot of jazz in New York on the radio. |
The saxophone is a very interesting machine, but I'm more interested in music. |
The soprano turned out to sound to me like the right hand on the piano. |
When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now. |
Kenny G, I have to be grateful to him for proving that the instrument can be played all different kinds of ways. |
I wanted to be a pianist but it just wasn't my thing. I guess I wanted to stand up rather than sit down. |
Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work. |
Play difficult and interesting things. If you play boring things, you risk losing your appetite. Saxophone can be tedious with too much of the same. |
The potential for the saxophone is unlimited. |
Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk. |
I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz. |
Register is very important. Music sounds best in a certain register. |
There is an awful lot of what I call recreational jazz going on, where people go out and learn a particular language or style and become real sharks on somebody else's language. |
It's very important to go through periods where you sound just rotten and you know it, and you have to persevere or give up. |
Nobody was playing the soprano saxophone and certainly nobody was trying to do anything with it. So I was all alone. I didn't know that at first. |
You must have the music to justify an instrument's extensive use. |
When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly. |