Walter Beasley is an anomaly: a successful performing musician who possesses the rare skill of understanding the musical process beyond the intuitive. T
BRANFORD MARSALISThe way to learn the language is to rip off other players. As Benny Golson told me, “We all start off sounding like other cats.
More Branford Marsalis Quotes
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.
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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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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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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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You know, being America, being the land of “number ones”, everyone wants to be a leader before they follow.
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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 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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