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For a person to have a contented life, they have to find something that challenges them and respond to it…
Art Farmer -
I would classify myself as, being an interpreter, basically, of what other people have written. I find something that I feel comfortable in – that I can put myself into – and that’s what I do, play it. I express myself through the music that someone else wrote. With the availability of so much good music, there’s no reason to play mediocre music just because you wrote it yourself, which some people do.
Art Farmer
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When I'm home, I practice four or five hours a day...I warm up for an hour before a gig.
Art Farmer -
The music is what sustains the player from beginning to end. That’s where you get your life from. That’s why you play jazz.
Art Farmer -
You can try 10 different #4’s and each will sound different. A mouthpiece is just a thing that connects the musician to the horn. It has to fit just right. You can spend your entire life looking for the perfect mouthpiece. I know guys who do. It’s better to spend your time looking for the perfect notes.
Art Farmer -
The main problem is to free your mind when you play. I find that in my own playing, whenever I feel any kind of tension, I'm restricted to playing the most fundamental kinds of things.
Art Farmer -
Economy: that what you played had to have meaning, not just a bunch of sixteenth notes. You learn to make better choices of notes as you get older.
Art Farmer