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.
Gerry Mulligan

New York is still where I live most of the time.
Gerry Mulligan

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.
Gerry Mulligan

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.
Gerry Mulligan

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.
Gerry Mulligan

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

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