Stan Getz Quotes

36 quotes in 452 categories

• The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument…
• It’s like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn sentences, which are the chords. And then you talk extemporaneously with…
• You know, when I'm playing, I think of myself in front of the Wailing Wall with a saxophone in my hands, and I'm davening, I'm…
• My life is music, and in some vague, mysterious and subconscious way, I have always been driven by a taut inner spring which has propelled…
• I never consciously tried to conceive of what my sound should be...
• Switch to piano! No. Really, if you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice. Of course,…
• The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it…
• I appreciate men like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins very much.
• I came from an era when we didn't use electronic instruments. The bass wasn't even amplified. The sound was the sound you got.
• I played in rhumba bands, mickey mouse bands; all kinds of bands.
• Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more…
• Records used to be documents, but now record companies want product.
• If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice.
• I never have any trouble playing anything I can think of. The trouble is in thinking of what to play.
• I practiced saxophone eight hours a day for the first two years I played.
• There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. they are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence.
• My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to…
• When I got this saxophone, it became a religion. There wasn't TV, there wasn't much money, and there was just a real dedication.... I never…
• I learn something new every day - to edit, to take out all the extraneous matter and stress form, logic, and content. I try to…
• I've always regretted the fact that I've never formally studied and learned the mechanics of writing music.

Browse Stan Getz Quotes by Category