his special ability enables Walter to communicate with aspiring musicians in a way that removes the sense of mystery that sometimes enshrouds our profession.
BRANFORD MARSALISYou don’t know what you like, you like what you know. In order to know what you like, you have to know everything.
More Branford Marsalis Quotes
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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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Pop doesn’t really look back. It can’t. What makes pop work is simplicity.
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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.
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My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.
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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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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 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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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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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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I’m not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.
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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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If it’s not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what’s the point of playing Terrapin Station?
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Everybody talks about finding your voice. Do your homework and your voice will find you.
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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 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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