Paul Desmond Quotes

#1. Milton, of all people, gave the most perfect definition of the state of mind required to play jazz: ' with wanton heed and giddy cunning.' That's how you play jazz.

Paul Desmond

#2. I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast.

Paul Desmond

#3. We're working as if it were going out of style-which of course it is.

Paul Desmond

#4. The qualities in music which I considered most important - and still do - were beauty, simplicity, originality, discrimination, and sincerity.

Paul Desmond

#5. It was never supposed to be a hit. It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo,

Paul Desmond

#6. Complexity can be a trap. You can have a ball developing a phrase, inverting it, playing it in different keys and times and all. But it's really more introspective than communicative. Like a crossword puzzle compared to a poem.

Paul Desmond

#7. I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.

Paul Desmond

#8. Not for me. If I want to tune everybody out, I just take off my glasses and enjoy the haze.

Paul Desmond

#9. I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.

Paul Desmond

#10. I'm glad [Ornette Coleman] is such an individualist. I like the firmness of thought and purpose that goes into what he's doing, even though I don't always like to listen to it. It's like living in a house where everything's painted red.

Paul Desmond

#11. Our basic audience begins with creaking elderly types of twenty-three and above.

Paul Desmond

#12. Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can't be taught.

Paul Desmond

#13. I was overlooked long before anyone knew who I was.

Paul Desmond

#14. We used to get on planes, and they'd ask who we were, and we'd say, 'The Dave Brubeck Quartet', and they'd say, 'Who?' In later years they'd say, 'Oh', which amounts to the same thing.

Paul Desmond

#15. I discovered early in life that if you take gym first period, you can go into the wrestling room and sit in the corner and sleep.

Paul Desmond

#16. I would also like to thank my father who discouraged me from playing the violin at an early age.

Paul Desmond