Benny Goodman plays the clarinet. I play music.
The ability to play the clarinet is the ability to overcome the imperfections of the instrument. There's no such thing as a perfect clarinet, never was and never will be.
[I wanted] to play the clarinet well so I could be in Duke Ellington's band, but that's now impossible.
I played the clarinet, and my sister played the violin. . . If wed had the discipline and the passion, maybe we could have been good.
I've been writing music since I was 9. I took harmony and counterpoint classes when I was studying the clarinet. So, I've been writing for an awfully long time. It just became part of everyday life.
The oboe sounds like a clarinet with a cold.
One nice thing about my momma is, she never gets on you for what you are not doing. I mean, she never looks away from the things you do only to notice what isn't on the plan. This is the most important thing in getting along with. . . anybody, and I can tell you because I copy it from her and it makes good sense. You don't go looking at the things people don't do, when they already be doing plenty in other areas. If your son collects stamps, why you want to go fussing at him because he doesn't play the clarinet? Check out his stamps, man.
I spend a lot of time idly. I go to sporting events, play my clarinet. I practise. But if you work every day, a certain amount on a steady basis, the work accumulates.
The clarinet is a musical instrument the only thing worse than which is two.
[Some] times I'd have sound but no image. When Patti [Smith] was singing with her guitar, or doing something amazing with her clarinet, I'd just mess around and record the sound. So we'd use those sounds as another layer in the film [Dream of Life].
My eyes are too big, my nose is too flat, my ears stick out, my mouth is too big and my face is too small. . . my body is thin as a clarinet and my ankles are so skinny that I wear two pairs of bobby socks because I don't want people to see how thin they are.
No birdcall is the musical equal of a clarinet blown with panache.
Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That's why I wanted the clarinet.
Ted Lewis could make the clarinet talk. What it said was put me back in the case!
I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.
Listening to Benny [Goodman] talk about the clarinet was like listening to a surgeon get hung up on a scalpel.
There are two instruments worse than a clarinet - two clarinets.
You can sweat by not practicing or you can pick up your clarinet. There's good sweat and there's bad sweat.
I've always liked using flutes and clarinets. Any time I can use those, I'm really happy.
I started off playing the clarinet, after I was inspired by listening to my dad's Benny Goodman records.
