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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.

Branford Marsalis

Walter Beasley is an anomaly: a successful performing musician who possesses the rare skill of understanding the musical process beyond the intuitive. T
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Skills Successful Understanding
So much of Jazz doesn’t have an audience other than music students or musicians.
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Jazz Music Students
Everybody talks about finding your voice. Do your homework and your voice will find you.
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Findings Homework Voice
My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.
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Jobs Music Song
Pop doesn’t really look back. It can’t. What makes pop work is simplicity.
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Looks Music Simplicity
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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Band Listening Musician
I’m not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.
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Albums Jazz Play Sense
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?
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Artist Records Sound
The biggest problem with American music right now, is that kids don’t listen. They come by it honestly, Americans don’t listen anyway.
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Biggest Country Kids People
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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Doors Needs Thinking
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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Couple Sound Stupid Trails
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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Inspiring Men Perfect
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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People Piano Times Tough
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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Culture Focus Intellectual
If it’s not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what’s the point of playing Terrapin Station?
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Ifs Sound Stations
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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Fun Okay People

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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