Branford Marsalis Quotes & Sayings

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“If I were like a lot of other people, then it wouldn't be fun; but since I'm like me, it's okay.”

“If it's not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what's the point of playing Terrapin Station?”

“Pop doesn't really look back. It can't. What makes pop work is simplicity.”

“That's kind of like how jazz is sometimes. You're out there predicting the future, and no one believes you.”

“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.”

“If you're going to use standards as criteria for signing musicians, you can sign thousands. If you're going to use some sort of conceptual interpretation that's based on the tradition of those standards, but is trying to move away from it, you're down to about 10 people or so.”