“I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.”
About his distinctive light sound
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Paul Desmond è stato un sassofonista, compositore e clarinettista statunitense di musica jazz.
Giunto alla notorietà con la sua partecipazione al The Dave Brubeck Quartet dal 1951 al 1967, Desmond è l'autore del massimo successo del quartetto, il brano Take Five. È considerato uno dei giganti del sax contralto jazz.
Il vero nome di Desmond era Paul Emil Breitenfeld ma egli, ritenendolo un nome inadatto ad un musicista, lo cambiò, si dice, scegliendone un altro da un elenco telefonico.
Wikipedia
“I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.”
About his distinctive light sound
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His response to the annoying banality of an interviewer
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“I could only write at the beach, and I kept getting sand in my typewriter.”
His reason for not pursuing a literary career
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“It's like living in a house where everything's painted red.”
On Ornette Coleman's playing
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“I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast.”
About the value of practice
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“I hate the way he writes. I kind of love the way he lives, though.”
On writer Jack Kerouac
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“Well, that I'm not playing better.”
When asked by Gene Lees what accounted for the melancholy in his playing
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