1934 – 2004 • American • Musician
You have to sound sad first of all, then maybe later you can sound good.
You can work on the saxophone alone, but ultimately you must perform with others.
Whoever has an original thing to say, it is sort of a threat to the status quo.
When I heard Monk in person in 1955, he was playing with a quartet in a small club. The place was full of musicians, but there was no public at all.
When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly.
When I first started playing music in 1955, there was just a small body of people that knew it. It was a very esoteric type of thing.
