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. Branford Marsalis More Quotes by Branford Marsalis More Quotes From Branford Marsalis I gave up my base in popular culture when I left the Tonight Show. Branford Marsalis gave-up tonight culture 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? Branford Marsalis records artist sound 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. Branford Marsalis doors needs thinking If I were like a lot of other people, then it wouldn't be fun; but since I'm like me, it's okay. Branford Marsalis okay fun people If it's not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what's the point of playing Terrapin Station? Branford Marsalis stations ifs sound We have something that is unique. We have our craft. We have our art. We have our desire. Branford Marsalis unique desire art We all played bad before we played good. Branford Marsalis You hear it in your brain. Whatever makes sense. Some songs work well as quartet songs, sometimes they don't. Branford Marsalis brain song sometimes My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me. Branford Marsalis music song jobs I'm not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense. Branford Marsalis jazz albums play 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. Branford Marsalis trying people moving There is not a sentence in the world that could respectfully do justice to the life and music of Jerry Garcia. Branford Marsalis jerry justice world 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? Branford Marsalis identification titles mean 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 piano tough-times people There's not one Tin Pan Alley song on my record. Branford Marsalis tin-pan-alley records song 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 couple stupid song 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. Branford Marsalis dad taken house It's something that jazz has gotten away from, and it's unfortunate. Players aren't physical anymore. Branford Marsalis unfortunate jazz player There's a certain kind of motion and pacing that our music has, and this just doesn't have that. We just kind of rushed to the conclusion of most of the songs. I just would've preferred to done them over. Branford Marsalis over just music done Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic. Branford Marsalis always jazz fans love
