Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond
Paul Desmondwas an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for composing that group's greatest hit, "Take Five". He was one of the most popular musicians to come out of the West Coast's cool jazz scene...
ProfessionSaxophonist
Date of Birth25 November 1924
CitySan Francisco, CA
beauty considered music qualities
The qualities in music I considered most important -- and still do -- were beauty, simplicity, originality, discrimination, and sincerity,
age-and-aging american-musician early father playing thank violin
I would also like to thank my father who discouraged me from playing the violin at an early age.
american-musician anyone knew overlooked
I was overlooked long before anyone knew who I was.
felt responsibility
I felt a responsibility to all other newsletter publishers.
dry mind sound
I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted it to sound like a dry martini.
new-york reading home
Sometimes I get the feeling that there are orgies going on all over new York City, and somebody says, `Let's call Desmond,' and somebody else says, 'Why bother? He's probably home reading the Encyclopedia Britannica.'
music elderly three
Our basic audience begins with creaking elderly types of twenty-three and above.
sleep wrestling rooms
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.
years used planes
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.
glasses want tunes
Not for me. If I want to tune everybody out, I just take off my glasses and enjoy the haze.
memorable house purpose
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.
music thinking mind
I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.
style going-out jazz
We're working as if it were going out of style-which of course it is.
keys different balls
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.