Bud Freeman discusses the early days of his jazz career.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.35MB)

Bud Freeman discusses his career drive.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.26MB)

Bud Freeman on being a saxophone player.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.42MB)

If you are experiencing problems playing audio on this site,
please update to the latest version of Flash.

Transcription

Q: “I’ve never thought of you as a saxophone player, as a tenor man. Some people seem born to their instrument – I couldn’t imagine Teagarden playing anything else, or Louis playing anything but trumpet – you, I could imagine you playing anything because it’s just as though you happened to have picked up the tenor and that’s what you use to express yourself but it could just as easily have been something else…”

A: “Now, Ted, excuse me cutting you off because I can't wait to tell you about this. That's an extraordinary thing, you should talk about this because Ruby Braff, the great cornet player, and I were talking about this just recently in London. He had come over to do a thing. He said, "I'm not a cornet player." He said, "I'm using this to express what I feel about music." And I said, "Ruby, I'm not a saxophone player. I don't know the normal play to the instrument. If anything goes wrong with it, I'm in a panic. I have to get some friend to fix it for me.What I've always used it for is, and why I play jazz music is that it's a means of expressing what I feel about life and what I feel about music and a way of life. And that's a very sage thing you’ve said because I do not identify with the instrument as being a mechanical saxophone.” When people say, "He's a marvelous saxophone player." That's a guy who has a fantastic technique and says nothing. Whereas with what I do, I don’t need any technique, I'm just interested in trying to tell a little story about what I feel about music. And so as you've suggested, it could be on any instrument.”