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" I always try to think of a vocabulary to match different musical situations. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Always
Match
Think
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" Life is short, and, once somebody is gone, they're gone. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Once
Gone
Short
" I've always been interested in shaping music in odd ways, with odd riffs and that's been probably something that I've continued on with my studies with improvisation as I'm working with people. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Odd
People
Always
" This is what really makes real jazz musicians: people coming out with their own voice. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Voice
Jazz
Musicians
" I like to hear melodies that go from one extreme to the next- saxophone to a bell to a whistle, for instance. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Like
Hear
Go
" If you're playing with a number of people, there are all sorts of textures, all kinds of possibilities you can get into. So why just play a theme together and then take solos? "
Roscoe Mitchell
People
Possibilities
You
" What I try to impart to a musician is to really try to practice the instrument in a really sincere way. Learn as much about music as you possibly can. Learn composition. Study to try to create compositions of your own and put your own personal touch on your music. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Try
Practice
Music
" Music has a way of getting under your skin. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Way
Your
Getting
" If you listen to nature, all the sounds are done in a confident way. I'm trying to do that. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Confident
Done
Nature
" I feel that in order to learn as much about music as I would like to learn, I would need more than one lifetime. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Need
More
Music
" I just consider myself a student, trying to learn more about it. "
Roscoe Mitchell
More
Trying
Student
" I feel I'm most successful when I'm playing a concert, and it doesn't necessarily seem like I'm playing a saxophone but am coming off more like an orchestra or something like that. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Orchestra
Concert
Feel
" You have to know composition to be a good improviser. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Know
Composition
Good
" I felt that I had been influenced by being in the city enough and I wanted to go off by myself to see what was going on. I remember going out there and looking in the mirror and thinking I wasn't anything. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Looking
City
Mirror
" I say if you can find somebody you can make music with, that's a special thing, so you should try to keep it going. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Try
Find
Music
" When you can make a good, strong musical connection with people, that's always there. That's not often that that happens. "
Roscoe Mitchell
You
Strong
People
" You can work on music a few lifetimes. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Work
Few
Lifetimes
" I noticed that when it came time to improvise, my students would often make mistakes. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Time
Improvise
Mistakes
" It wasn't until I got out of the Army and I heard Coltrane's record 'Coltrane,' when he was doing 'Inch Worm' and 'Out of This World,' that I thought, 'Oh my God, you can do that?' And then I thought, 'OK, I better go back and listen to Eric Dolphy a bit.' And then I said, 'Hmm, I better pull out these Ornette Coleman records.' "
Roscoe Mitchell
Doing
Thought
World
" I'm approaching a period in my life though where I'd like to be totally absorbed into music, doing concerts, writing something. Basically, that IS what I am doing. "
Roscoe Mitchell
My Life
Music
Life
" What I'm after is a composed music that will sound like improvised music when improvisors play it. You shouldn't be able to tell what parts are being improvised and what parts were written out beforehand; it should sound like the same music. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Tell
Will
You
" I remember times when the whole music scene was just flourishing. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Remember
I Remember
Just
" My central quest was to have a piece played on the saxophone sound like more than one instrument, exploiting different registers and wide interval leaps. "
Roscoe Mitchell
More
Sound
Saxophone
" Man, I used to go around and think, 'Oh my God, what must it be like to be going down the street, and someone asks you, 'What's your name?' and the reply would be, 'John Coltrane.' I couldn't imagine what that would be like. "
Roscoe Mitchell
You
Name
Man
" I don't like to box myself in when I'm composing. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Myself
Like
Composing
" To be a good improviser, you have to study composition as a parallel. Because what improvisation is, on a high level, is spontaneous composition. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Spontaneous
You
Study
" I think the best thing you can teach a person is how to learn. And once they discover their own individual approach to that - which is inside all of us - then all of a sudden, they've opened up a door of endless resources. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Learn
You
Think
" I'm the kind of guy that if I go to a concert and hear something that knocks me out, I don't want to be left out of that. I'm going to try to get into that, and I'm running back home to practice. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Back
Home
Kind
" I'm into something that definitely does require your attention, and with that, you're not going to run out of things to do. You're never going to be the master of music. "
Roscoe Mitchell
You
Run
Attention
" I'm trying to learn to really use space. My philosophy is that every time you interrupt space in a very confident, secure manner, then music happens. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Time
You
Trying
" Creating sounds together with other musicians is something I've always liked doing. "
Roscoe Mitchell
Doing
Together
Musicians