Gerry Mulligan

What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

Eliminating the piano means that I’ve always worked closer with the bass than most players.

Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra.

I’m fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with.

Life on the road is murder. It’s as though life begins and ends with your horn in your mouth.

You never get it figured out. You just keep playing.

There is no such thing as a wrong note.

There’s millions and millions of people who think Les Paul is a guitar!

You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.

There’s so many ways you can hit one note.

When Hank Jones had his night off, I would get somebody to take my place as intermission pianist and I’d play the show with Ella, so I would get a chance to play with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as well.

I was not prepared to play the role of singer in the camp of the warriors

Jazz is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.

If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

Let your life be your music and let your music be your life.

Stevie didn’t use the technology to drive the song. He used it to enhance. I use the tools to further my work, I don’t use my work to further the tools.

The sign of a mature musician is knowing what not to play.

When I was in the country and I was trying to play, nobody seemed to pay too much attention to me. People used to say, ‘That’s just that ole blues singer.’

My dream is to do whatever I want without any interference from the record company.