If it’s not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what’s the point of playing Terrapin Station?
BRANFORD MARSALISWhat 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.
More Branford Marsalis Quotes
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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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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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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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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 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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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 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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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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I’m not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.
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Everybody talks about finding your voice. Do your homework and your voice will find you.
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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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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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My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.
BRANFORD MARSALIS