So much of Jazz doesn’t have an audience other than music students or musicians.
BRANFORD MARSALISSo much of Jazz doesn’t have an audience other than music students or musicians.
More Branford Marsalis Quotes
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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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When people go to concerts, they say I’m going to see… not, I’m going to hear.
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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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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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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.
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What you have to do is play a couple of songs and then get off the stage because everything that trails it sounds stupid.
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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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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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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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Everybody talks about finding your voice. Do your homework and your voice will find you.
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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.
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I’m not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.
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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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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.
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