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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.
Branford Marsalis
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Branford Marsalis
Age: 64
Born: 1960
Born: August 26
Actor
Composer
Jazz Musician
Saxophonist
New Orleans
Louisiana
Music
Piano
Much
Particularly
Time
Easily
People
Following
Structure
Spelling
Tough
Structures
Understood
Factor
Makes
Factors
More quotes by Branford Marsalis
So much of Jazz doesn't have an audience other than music students or musicians.
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It's something that jazz has gotten away from, and it's unfortunate. Players aren't physical anymore.
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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 gave up my base in popular culture when I left the Tonight Show.
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You hear it in your brain. Whatever makes sense. Some songs work well as quartet songs, sometimes they don't.
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Jazz is so incestuous that it's starting to kill itself.
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We played it as long as we could play it on that CD and I think it might be 50 minutes, maybe. What you have to do is play a couple of songs and then get off the stage because everything that trails it sounds stupid.
Branford Marsalis
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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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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Everybody talks about finding your voice. Do your homework and your voice will find you.
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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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If youre going to use standards as criteria for signing musicians, you can sign thousands. If youre going to use some sort of conceptual interpretation thats based on the tradition of those standards, but is trying to move away from it, youre down to about 10 people or so.
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A lot of musicians have a tough time hearing what we're doing in a trio format.
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My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.
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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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The biggest problem with American music right now, is that kids don't listen. They come by it honestly, Americans don't listen anyway. When people go to concerts, they say I'm going to see... not, I'm going to hear.
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If you listen to a lot of the songs that are popular now, there's very little melody in there. People love the beat. But to musicians, it's melody, because we understand how elusive it is and how hard it is to hold.
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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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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.
Branford Marsalis
