70 Quotes by Branford Marsalis

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.

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

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.

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.

Pop doesn’t really look back. It can’t. What makes pop work is simplicity.

You hear it in your brain. Whatever makes sense. Some songs work well as quartet songs, sometimes they don’t.

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?

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?

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