37 Quotes by Roscoe Mitchell

I think that good improvisers should be able to play solo as well as master all the problems that happen within a group improvisation.

I just consider myself a student, trying to learn more about it.

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.

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.

I remember times when the whole music scene was just flourishing.

I always try to think of a vocabulary to match different musical situations.

You have to know composition to be a good improviser.

If you listen to nature, all the sounds are done in a confident way. I'm trying to do that.

I like to hear melodies that go from one extreme to the next- saxophone to a bell to a whistle, for instance.