“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, de nome Paul Emil Breitenfeld , foi um saxofonista alto, e compositor, norte-americano, que ficou famoso por tocar no quarteto de Dave Brubeck, entre 1959 e 1967. Fez parte do West Coast Jazz, e uma das suas composições mais conhecidas é Take Five.
Paralelamente ao seu trabalho com Brubeck, Desmond tocou também com Gerry Mulligan, Jim Hall e Chet Baker. De fraca saúde, Desmond era um fumador inveterado, acabando por morrer de cancro do pulmão, em 1977, após ter feito uma última turnê com Brubeck.
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“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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