I was listening to a few Paul Quinichette tunes yesterday and I began to wonder what it felt like to spend an entire musical career playing and sounding like someone else. Sonny Stitt did it, but Stitt also played tenor sax. So he may have sounded a lot like Bird on alto, but he switched it up every now and then. But Quinichette never really strayed too far from the Lester Young (”Prez”) sound, thus acquiring the moniker of “Vice Prez”. From what I have read recently, Young was not a huge fan of Quinichette’s, but I don’t know if that is really true. Fact is, though, Quinichette did sound just like Young. But I have to tell you, I still loved his tone and his playing. He even tilted the horn like Young sometimes. Would you consider him an imitator or an emulator? There are two videos below. Top is Quinichette. Bottom is Young.
Quinichette plays after the Trombone solo
Young
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Trombonlogy Said:
It’s difficult to criticize a guy for choosing as his model and mentor so great a musician as Lester Young, but it’s always made me a little nervous to listen to Quinichette. If your whole musical identity is based on imitating someone else, no matter how accurately, then what is your identity? I know Pres referred to Quinichette as “Lady Q,” so he must have had some appreciation for what he was doing, but I still feel that Lester would have been the first to say that you need to have your own sound, your own story to tell.