Creativity Quote by Gerry Mulligan

Mulligan’s line lands like a casual shrug, but it’s really a manifesto from a working musician who spent his life deciding what a horn is for. He’s not dunking on alto or tenor sax players; he’s naming a structural problem: the saxophone section doesn’t naturally belong to the classical orchestra’s DNA. Unlike strings, woodwinds, and brass, saxophones arrived late, with a tone that reads as conspicuously modern - too direct, too vocal, too “front of the band” to disappear into the blended upholstery orchestras prize.

The intent is practical and slightly political. Mulligan is defending the saxophone’s strongest cultural role: individual voice. In jazz, the saxophone is a character, not a texture. Even in Mulligan’s own career - baritone sax as a nimble, melodic lead, cool-jazz chamber settings, arrangements that breathe - the instrument succeeds when it’s allowed to speak plainly, not when it’s forced to behave like a clarinet with a different mouthpiece. His exception clause (“except as solo instruments”) is the key tell: he grants the orchestra can host the sax, but only as a guest star, not a resident.

Subtext: orchestras often use novelty instruments as color without giving them real narrative agency. Mulligan is pushing back on tokenism in instrumentation. Context matters too: by the mid-20th century, saxophones were ubiquitous in bands and film scores yet still treated as outsiders in concert halls. His quip is less about acoustics than about cultural hierarchy - who gets to be “serious,” and who’s allowed to sound like themselves.