Branford Marsalis Quotes

• You hear it in your brain. Whatever makes sense. Some songs work well as quartet songs, sometimes they don’t.

  Branford Marsalis

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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

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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

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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

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• There’s not one Tin Pan Alley song on my record.

  Branford Marsalis

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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• Pop doesn’t really look back. It can’t. What makes pop work is simplicity.

  Branford Marsalis

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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

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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

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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

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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

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• It’s something that jazz has gotten away from, and it’s unfortunate. Players aren’t physical anymore.

  Branford Marsalis

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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

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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

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  Tags in Standards, Use

• 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

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Branford Marsalis (31)

Birth:	26th August, 1960
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Bandleader, Composer, Saxophonist

About

Branford Marsalis was born in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. He is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque. Other performances with his brother, including a 1981 Japanese tour with Herbie Hancock, led to the formation of his brother Wynton’s first quintet, where Marsalis shifted his emphasis to soprano and tenor saxophones. He continued to work with Wynton until 1985, a period that also saw the release of his own first recording, Scenes in the City, as well as guest appearances with other artists including Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie.

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