Musician

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

When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins.

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.

Actually, it is a fact that I've been doing more writing than playing in recent years.

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

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

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.

Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.

The baritone can serve functions that the alto and tenor cannot, in orchestral voicing.

Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately.

If you've only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble.

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

So I played alto for quite a while until I saved up the money for the baritone.

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.

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.

In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.

The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field.

It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.

You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it.

The other saxophones, except as solo instruments, really don't have much point in the orchestra.