Quotes by Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis

American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader

Lived from: 1960 -

Category: Music | Politics

Born: 26 august 1960

Quotes 1 till 20 of 24.

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  • A lot of musicians have a tough time hearing what we're doing in a trio format.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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  • If it's not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what's the point of playing Terrapin Station?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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  • It's something that jazz has gotten away from, and it's unfortunate. Players aren't physical anymore.
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  • Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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  • Pop doesn't really look back. It can't. What makes pop work is simplicity.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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