Pop doesn’t really look back. It can’t. What makes pop work is simplicity.
BRANFORD MARSALISIt’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.
More Branford Marsalis Quotes
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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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My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.
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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.
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You know, being America, being the land of “number ones”, everyone wants to be a leader before they follow.
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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 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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So much of Jazz doesn’t have an audience other than music students or musicians.
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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?
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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.
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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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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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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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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?
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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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Everybody talks about finding your voice. Do your homework and your voice will find you.
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