Quotes by Branford Marsalis - Page 1

We all played bad before we played good.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
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There's not one Tin Pan Alley song on my record.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Records
Song
Tin
Tin Pan Alley
Alley
Pan
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Jazz is so incestuous that it's starting to kill itself.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Music
Jazz
Starting
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My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Jobs
Music
Song
Writing
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I gave up my base in popular culture when I left the Tonight Show.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Culture
Gave Up
Popular Culture
Tonight
Base
Popular
Tonight Show
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I'm not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Albums
Funk
Jazz
Play
Album
No Sense
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Pop doesn't really look back. It can't. What makes pop work is simplicity.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Music
Looks
Simplicity
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A lot of musicians have a tough time hearing what we're doing in a trio format.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Format
Hearing
Musician
Tough Times
Time Tough Doing
Musicians
Tough Time
Trio
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So much of Jazz doesn't have an audience other than music students or musicians.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Music
Jazz
Students
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Everybody talks about finding your voice. Do your homework and your voice will find you.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Findings
Homework
Voice
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We have something that is unique. We have our craft. We have our art. We have our desire.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Art
Desire
Unique
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If it's not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what's the point of playing Terrapin Station?
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Ifs
Sound
Stations
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If I were like a lot of other people, then it wouldn't be fun; but since I'm like me, it's okay.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Fun
Okay
People
Me Fun People
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It's something that jazz has gotten away from, and it's unfortunate. Players aren't physical anymore.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Jazz
Player
Unfortunate
Gotten
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Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Jazz
Miles
Love Fans Always
Myriad
Reasons
Simplistic
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That's kind of like how jazz is sometimes. You're out there predicting the future, and no one believes you.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Believe
Jazz
Kind
Predicting
Believes
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You know, being America, being the land of "number ones", everyone wants to be a leader before they follow.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
America
Land
Numbers
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I think that one of the problems that jazz has is that it's so incestuous that it's starting to kill itself.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Jazz
One Of The Problems
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You hear it in your brain. Whatever makes sense. Some songs work well as quartet songs, sometimes they don't.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Brain
Sometimes
Song
Quartet
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There is not a sentence in the world that could respectfully do justice to the life and music of Jerry Garcia.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Jerry
Justice
World
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You don't know what you like, you like what you know. In order to know what you like, you have to know everything.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Music
Jazz
Order
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I like to make records sound good. I'm more like a reducer than a producer. If an artist cannot produce themselves, what's the point?
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Artist
Produce
Records
Sound
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When you're dealing with music without words, titles are more a means of identification than anything else. What's the point of getting lofty?
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Identification
Lofty
Mean
Titles
Anything Else
Dealing
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It's hard to get into Newsweek because, as more of our former intellectual magazines take on a pop focus, if there's no buzz, there's no interest.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Buzz
Culture
Focus
Former
Intellectual
Magazines
Newsweek
No Interest
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I think that if you keep banging at the door all you need is a little foothold, a little tiny foothold, and then the rest will take care of itself.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Banging
Doors
Needs
Take Care
Thinking
Tiny
Door
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What is jazz? It, It's almost like asking, What is French? Jazz is a musical language. It's a musical dialect that actually embodies the spirit of America.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
America
Asking
Dialect
Jazz
Musical
Almost
French
Embodies
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Coltrane came to New Orleans one day and he was talking about the jazz scene. And Coltrane mentions that the problem with jazz was that there were too few groups.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Coltrane
Groups
Jazz
New Day
New Orleans
One Day
Scene
Talking
Day New One Day
Orleans
The Problem With
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My dad was a musician, it was just what he did, like another guy's dad drives a meat truck. Our house was normal. We weren't taken with the fact our dad was a musician.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Dad
House
Meat
Musician
Taken
Truck
Drives
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One of the things that's clear to me from interviews that I've read is that the more popular successful jazz musicians had audiences above and beyond the music community.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Community
Halloween
Jazz
Successful
Above
Music Community Me
Audiences
Jazz Musicians
Music Community
Popular
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I suspect that we might actually start selling some records with these artists in about 10 years. Some the people who invested, they're a little tight-because it's a lot of money to start up a company.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Records
Selling
Money Start People
Invested
Suspect
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There's a certain kind of motion and pacing that our music has, and this just doesn't have that. We just kind of rushed to the conclusion of most of the songs. I just would've preferred to done them over.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Conclusion
Pacing
Just Kind
Motion
Our Music
Preferred
Rushed
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Humans are imperfect. That's one of the reasons that classical and jazz are in trouble. We're on the quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Inspiring
Men
Humans
Imperfect
Jazz
Perfect
Right Man
Trouble
Classical
Performance
Note
Quest
Reasons
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The whole point is, give me a break with the standards. You go to the average jazz label and suggest a record and they want to know which standards you're going to play. I'm saying let's break the formula.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Average
Give Me
Giving
Jazz
Play
Standards
Me Know Go
Label
Suggest
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If you listen to a lot of the songs that are popular now, there's very little melody in there. People love the beat. But to musicians, it's melody, because we understand how elusive it is and how hard it is to hold.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Elusive
Melody
Musician
People
Song
Love People Understand
Beat
Musicians
Popular
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The biggest problem with American music right now, is that kids don't listen. They come by it honestly, Americans don't listen anyway. When people go to concerts, they say I'm going to see... not, I'm going to hear.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Kids
America
American Music
Concerts
Honestly
People
Music People American
Music People See
Anyway
Biggest Problem
They Say
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We played it as long as we could play it on that CD and I think it might be 50 minutes, maybe. What you have to do is play a couple of songs and then get off the stage because everything that trails it sounds stupid.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Couple
Minutes
Song
Stupid
Trails
Cd
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The piano is the X factor. People have a tough time following the structures when there's no piano there, spelling it out. It makes it more easily understood, particularly to people who don't know as much about music.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Following
People
Piano
Spelling
Tough Times
Understood
Time Music People
Easily
Factor
Particularly
Tough Time
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One of the things that I loved about listening to Miles Davis is that Miles always had an instinct for which musicians were great for what situations. He could always pick a band, and that was the thing that separated him from everybody else.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Band
Instinct
Listening
Miles
Musician
Davis
Everybody Else
Musicians
Pick
Separated
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The lion's share of what I hear right now are people who, intentional or accidental, have avoided all jazz prior to 1960. And all the musicians who were successful in the '60s spent their entire lives, prior to 1960, listening to all the musicians these people avoid.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Avoided
Jazz
Listening
People
Successful
Accidental
Avoid
Entire Lives
Intentional
Lion
Musicians
Prior
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I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would have never written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker never would have played anything but swing music. There comes a point at which you have to stand up and say, this is what I have to do.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Care
Swings
Use
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If youre going to use standards as criteria for signing musicians, you can sign thousands. If youre going to use some sort of conceptual interpretation thats based on the tradition of those standards, but is trying to move away from it, youre down to about 10 people or so.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Moving
People
Trying
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If you're going to use standards as criteria for signing musicians, you can sign thousands. If you're going to use some sort of conceptual interpretation that's based on the tradition of those standards, but is trying to move away from it, you're down to about 10 people or so.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Criteria
Interpretation
Standards
Conceptual
Musicians
Sign
Thousands
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The way to learn the language is to rip off other players. As Benny Golson told me, "We all start off sounding like other cats. And gradually, a lick here or there,we start to sound like ourselves. But it takes a long time to do so..." That'swhat he told me, and it worked for me.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Cat
Player
Rip
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Walter Beasley is an anomaly: a successful performing musician who possesses the rare skill of understanding the musical process beyond the intuitive. This special ability enables Walter to communicate with aspiring musicians in a way that removes the sense of mystery that sometimes enshrouds our profession.
Branford Marsalis / Saxophonist
Skills
Successful
Understanding
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