Branford Marsalis Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“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.”

“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.”

“The lion's share of what I hear right now are people who, intentional or accidental, have avoided all jazz prior to 1960. And all the musicians who were successful in the '60s spent their entire lives, prior to 1960, listening to all the musicians these people avoid.”

“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.”

“There's not one Tin Pan Alley song on my record.”

“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.”

“A lot of musicians have a tough time hearing what we're doing in a trio format.”

“I gave up my base in popular culture when I left the Tonight Show.”

“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?”

“I think that one of the problems that jazz has is that it's so incestuous that it's starting to kill itself.”